shawnp wrote: Hi I've gone through almost 100 threads looking for something that matches my issues and this is so far the closest I've found so here is my issue with some history of my trials and tribulations!
It sounds like you've narrowed it down to the ignition. Have you measured the primary resistance of the coils? The Dyna S requires coils that are 3 ohms or more. If you have a bad coil, that could be drawing too much current. You could also have a bad Dyna S, even if you just replaced it, but it would point to some other issue that is damaging it. A bad coil could damage the Dyna S.
If your coils measure above 3 ohms, then it would help to be able to measure current in the wires. Any chance you have a clamp on current meter? A proper one starts at about $150, but there are a bunch of cheap ones on Amazon. If they work at all they would probably be good enough to track this problem.
Something like this:
www.amazon.com/dp/B0721MKXBC
But make sure it can measure DC current. Some will only measure AC current.
If you have a meter like this, the first thing is to figure out how much current you are pulling from the battery right now. Maybe you don't have a problem. Maybe the wires just get warm.
All of this can be measured by clipping the meter onto the red positive battery cable and looking at how much current is coming out of the battery.
With they key in the run position, leave the engine off, turn the headlight switch on, put the engine run/stop switch to run. I would expect it to be around 15 amps? Next turn the headlight switch off. It should drop to around 10 amps? Then turn the run/stop switch to stop. That should disconnect the ignition, and the current should drop to about 1 amp?
For one coil, Ohms law says 12 volts and 3 ohms should give you 4 amps. So for two coils, you have 8 amps. plus a bit more for gauge lights and whatever else. If you're under 10 with the headlight off, you may have a wire or connector issue, but the ignition isn't doing anything it shouldn't be doing.
For the rest of this leave the bike with the key on, run/stop on, headlight off.
If the battery is putting out much more than 10 amps, unplug the +12V power wire from the two coils. It should be a red/yellow wire. Also unplug the Dyna S power, which is the red wire in the Dyna cable.
Now the current should be pretty low, back to about 1 amp? If it's much higher, you have a problem, but it's not in the ignition.
Next plug +12V back in to the Dyna S (with coils still unplugged from the red/yellow power). The current shouldn't really change. If the current increases a lot you have a bad Dyna S.
Next plug one coil in to the red/yellow power wire. The current should go up, but not by more than more than about 4 amps. If it's more, that coil may be bad.
Plus the other coil in. It should go up by 4 more amps, and now you should still be under 10 amps total. If it's more, the second coil may be bad.