Sparcon Electronic Ignition for T350

[joethebike]

i have just finished a ride on my T350 arriving home on the back of a breakdown vehicle, all thanks to my new Sparcon electronic ignition purchased from Dutch site Suzuki Parts NL.
This system looked good with Hall effect triggers from a rotating magnet and was sold as made to fit the T250/350 twins.
The set up was not easy with no real guidance but easy enough to work out a fairly simple system, as long as it works.
LED lights on the left and right modules light up as the magnet fires the coils but in my case the right side module initially refused to light up and took much shimming of the air gap to make the light come on so that both cylinders fired up.
Eventually I had both lights coming on and firing both coils but occasionally one side would cut out at low revs.
After much more fiddling the system seemed stable enough so today I attempted to reach a 2 Stroke Rally about 100 km away and for the first half the bike ran properly until a few km from the rally site when the bike began unstably firing the right cylinder.
After abandoning the rally and heading for home the right cylinder stopped firing altogether and after about 50km of slow riding on 1 cylinder both sparks fizzled out and a call to the RACQ breakdown service saw the bike home on a flatbed truck.
So the Sparcon system will be consigned to the dust bin, the cost written off to experience and the old points and condensor system will be refitted with a few new parts.
Some back and forth with the supplier left me with no confidence in them despite an offer to replace one of the spark modules for the cost of freight so I heartily do not recommend their system.

[Alan H]

I know that some people like electronic ignition, but all my Suzukis (3 x Gt550s currently) have points and run very well. Thing is, is electronic fails, you're on your own, but points rarely ALL fail.
I've rebuilt T200s, several 550s, run a GT750 and all run well without electronics.

Modern bikes are different with ignition systems actually designed for the bikes in question.

[elbert]

I've been running electronic ignition from Suzuki Parts NL on both my GT750 and the T350 for many years. I had one break down related to the ignition and that was when the rotor plate got loose on the Autobahn in Germany, but that was probably more my fault than the Ignition system.
I have also found that they are sensitive to low battery voltage which could be an issue on the T350, but I guess that goes for all electronic ignitions.

[jabcb]

The T250/GT250/T350/T500 rely on the battery to control voltage. The T500 & later GT250s have a primitive voltage regulator that limits voltage to around 16V. The others don/t even have a voltage regulator.

If you are going to install modern electrical anything (ignition, LED lights, etc), I would recommend upgrading to a modern rectifier/regulator.

Some years ago I was working on my 71 T350. Battery disconnected & adjusted points. Was interrupted by something. Got back & tried starting the bike without reconnecting the battery. Easily started & then quickly burned out all of the lights that were on.

[joethebike]

My T350 was fitted with a Tympanium reg/rectifier some years ago with a steady 14v at all revs and unregulated voltage was not the reason for the Sparcon failure.
Since converting back to points there have been no more problems.