Boxerworks.com

To add to Tim's comments. Yeah, they are "silver" now...you might even think they are gold if you figure shipping and customs...BUT they ARE the ones that are shorter and fatter and will rub the underside of the gas tank unless you add a little spacer under the studs that hold the back end of the tank.
I'd like to add: any NEW 6v coils are an improvement over our 31 (or 40-year-old) year old coils if you want to improve high end performance. Just be careful that the coils are compatible with the wiring scheme...that they have the correct primary resistance and do not require an external resistor that your bikes don't have, and will surely spoil your points quickly.

Great discussion, dwire. I've tried to 'splain to most of the folks here that condensers are for moonshine, and capacitors are for tank circuits...and I've seen a serious spark-plug and distributor testing machine in action. I recall a rule-of-thumb for a GOOD coil was that it should make a i/4 inch spark! This was in the 50's...You pulled a SP wire and held the end off the block...and hoped the insulation where you held it was good. We had some real fun back then, didn't we?

Tim Shepherd wrote: If you ever want to go to Bosch Blues (usually silver now) this is the best price I could find: http://www.busdepot.com/ignition-system/111905105h I don't know if they ship to Oz, but if you like I can First Class some your way.

Wow, that is a nice price. Thanks Tim - it appears that they do ship outside the US, too. I'll follow that up.

SteveD wrote:Good price.
Postage is probably similar though...a couple of kgs of weight fully packaged d'ya think?

Ask them if they will ship first class, should be around $15-$20. The Post Office wants over $36 to international ship a flat rate box that costs $11 here!

Jean wrote:...BUT they ARE the ones that are shorter and fatter and will rub the underside of the gas tank unless you add a little spacer under the studs that hold the back end of the tank.

Good to know, Jean. Any idea of the height for that spacer? I s'pose it might be possible to fabricate new mounting brackets that will sit the coils lower down to avoid that issue.

Airbear wrote:

Jean wrote:...BUT they ARE the ones that are shorter and fatter and will rub the underside of the gas tank unless you add a little spacer under the studs that hold the back end of the tank.

Good to know, Jean. Any idea of the height for that spacer? I s'pose it might be possible to fabricate new mounting brackets that will sit the coils lower down to avoid that issue.

I was able to "fab" the stock ones on my 71 /5 with the replacement blue coils; the biggest thing was the coil diameter increase. I can admit to not getting quite enough washers/spacers (and slightly longer bolts) installed initially and sort of "squashed" the sides of the coils a bit. Biggest things of note for me in my application was to make certain the coil spades were turned in a direction that kept them away from the tank and allowed the wires to still connect properly. (the extra's were bent over and snapped off...) Other than not using bolts and washers quite long enough causing the slight squishing of the coils on their exterior, I had no trouble retrofitting the blue, now plated Bosche coils on my bike. After measuring them separately and together, all seemed well, even after scrunching up the coil exteriors some, but I would highly recommend listening to others in advance and having longer hardware and spacers as well as washers on hand for the job. And as others lamented - yeah, imagine that, they did seem to work a bit better than my 40+ YO coils and likely would even if they might have been of exact same design.

Cheers, good luck.

Thanks Dwire. Good clues there.

Think nothing of it. I am still trying to figure out who and what mechanisms mess with the power of your money to make things so expensive! I know shipping can be expensive - and I am captain of having money interrupt my ability to ride my BMW as it is purely money that mandates my bike just sitting; it's had zero miles added this year, but... Just looking at the exchange rate the other day after the comments were made about filing points and such, surly seems like the Oz dollar ought to have a bit of power somewhere - enough to make things pretty affordable. I guess this is why I am not an accountant and am too impoverished to finish off my own bike and start riding it again, so file, burnish --> however you do it, enjoy the ride! Some of us are not even at that point financially.

When I could not get a better set of points as my supplier just had the china ones

I installed a Dyna III

they are good enough to go the distance on a freshed up motor

they run 3 omm coils and once set


just a yearly or 15,000 mile or 20,000km relube of the ATU is all you need

FAT coils: 2 possibilities.
You CAN fab new clamps that move the coils down a few mm, say 3, (a fat 1/8 inch if that's your measure) or mount the coils in the original clamps (remember the new coilks are FATTER and the old bolts might not work just right!) refit the tank with a piece of cardboard (beer-tote cardboard folded 2x) and measure how thick the spacers need to be at the studs. a slice of heater hose from the junk-bin should provide a nice spacer. Put the washer on top of the "rubber" and under the tank bracket. A couple of layers from an old innertube would be OK too.
Coils: I wonder why they made them fatter and shorter?
PS. You should paint them Blue anyhow...

On Points: If you have a friendly auto parts dealer nearby, take your BMW points to the store when they are not busy and ask what they have that looks the same. It worked for me in the 80's when I had a '68 220 gas MB.