Baffled by the ignition system

[geez_tech]

Ok, I'm confused here, even though the coil has two seperate spark plug
wires there is only one wire coming from the points and distributor
rotor to send spark to each cylinder, so how does each cylinder fire on
its own at different times?
Here is why I am asking, my thinking with this was that the coil always
fires both cylinders at the same time since there isn't a distributor
rotor for this and both plug wires come out of the same coil housing,
so I tried to hook up my VW coil so it could fire both cylinders and
instead it wanted to back fire through the intake a little and it
wouldn't attempt to start as well as it did last night when I had the
coil hooked up to one cylinder. So I hooked up just the drivers
cylinder and it fired up and ran on one cylinder, sounding much like a
Autopia car at Disneyland.
So the good news is that I now can get it to run but only on one
cylinder at a time until my replacement coil arrives.
So can some explain this to me how it works?
Thanks,
Mike

[Miles]

It fires both at the same time. One spark is wasted on the exhaust
stroke. There's a guy on eBay selling replacement coils for $40.00. I
tried to buy a bunch from him, but he would not lower the price.
Looks like a good bolt on replacement that you can change the wires
on.
Emgo Brand, Go to www.ebay.com and enter this number in the search
line - 160254452042
Miles

[Mario Montes]

Miles nailed it! It's called a "wasted spark" ignition setup.
Does anyone know the primary and secondary resistance of the original coils? Thats basically the only thing you have to "ball park" when replacing them with aftermarket units correct?
Thanks, Mario

On Thu, Aug 14, 2008 at 10:20 PM, Miles
It fires both at the same time. One spark is wasted on the exhaust
> stroke. There's a guy on eBay selling replacement coils for $40.00. I
> tried to buy a bunch from him, but he would not lower the price.
> Looks like a good bolt on replacement that you can change the wires
> on.
> Emgo Brand, Go to
> www.ebay.com
> and enter this number in the search
> line - 160254452042
> Miles
> --- In
> 2cylinderhondas@yahoogroups.com
> , "geez_tech"
> wrote:
> > Ok, I'm confused here, even though the coil has two seperate spark
> plug
> > wires there is only one wire coming from the points and distributor
> > rotor to send spark to each cylinder, so how does each cylinder
> fire on
> > its own at different times?
> > Here is why I am asking, my thinking with this was that the coil
> always
> > fires both cylinders at the same time since there isn't a
> distributor
> > rotor for this and both plug wires come out of the same coil
> housing,
> > so I tried to hook up my VW coil so it could fire both cylinders
> and
> > instead it wanted to back fire through the intake a little and it
> > wouldn't attempt to start as well as it did last night when I had
> the
> > coil hooked up to one cylinder. So I hooked up just the drivers
> > cylinder and it fired up and ran on one cylinder, sounding much
> like a
> > Autopia car at Disneyland.
> > So the good news is that I now can get it to run but only on one
> > cylinder at a time until my replacement coil arrives.
> > So can some explain this to me how it works?
> > Thanks,
> > Mike