calling all pamco gurus

ok so I am looking for a little help here to help out a good friend with his firs xs. hes getting very discouraged. he bought a titled roller and then an engine from another guy who said it ran. well we have yet to determine that as it has no spark, hes gone through the install of the pamco multiple times and its all out together correctly. he has done the steps outlined in the trouble shooting guide and the coil tests good along with the checks on the unit its self. is it very common for the pamco to go bad or is there something he is overlooking? I have no experience with the pamco because the two I have are points and cdi and since both work fine I saw no reason to upgrade at this point. any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Hey Jack, can't offer any help other than pointing you to this thread by 650skul
Maybe some answers in there?
fixed it gggG

Thanks Gary! Fat fingers, small keyboard.

that link doesn't work. but from what I am getting from him is the green wire coming from the pamco is 12v all the time. the way I understand this is the green should alternate between 12v and 0v am I right ? if it is not alternating would that mean the pamco its self is bad ?

Revisit the link posted, post #2.......it works for me......... go to post #2 in the thread and you will find a Q and A section.

Ok, on the XS650 the three most popular are points, TCI and Pamco. They all work about the same way. On the points a red/white wire carries power to the coils, a black wire goes from the coil to the points, as the points open and close they control current flow through the coil, by grounding and ungrounding the black wire, thus causing spark.
The TCI works the same way, power to coil on R/W wire, from coil to TCI box on a green wire, the TCI uses a transistor to control the current flow by grounding and ungrounding the green wire, thus causing spark. The TCI box also gets power on the R/W wire to power the circuitry.
The Pamco works very similar to the TCI. R/W caries power to coil, grounds and ungrounds the green wire, also gets power from R/W wire.
You don't mention just what you are using as a source of power to supply the ignition. If you are using a battery, make sure you have it fully charged. and all the wiring is correct, the ground is as important as the positive side. Good connections all around.
If you are trying to use a PMA type system I would use a battery hooked to just the ignition for initial testing and start up. Leave the PMA hooked up to the rest of the bikes electrics for testing PMA function.
Leo

thanks xsleo I don't believe it has a pma on it. I understand how it works normally and how points work and I may be jumping the gun by assuming he has put it all together correctly as I have not seen it since it was a pile of parts but hes fairly mechanically inclined. I will be headed up to his house Saturday to take a look at it. from what he is telling me is all the component checks in the trouble shooting guide for the pamco check out ok but with his cheap meter he has the green wire at the coil that comes from the pamco is hot all the time (12v) it does not switch when kicking the bike over which would explain the no spark since you aren't building and breaking the magnetic field in the coil, correct me if im wrong but say the timing was off you would still get spark just not at the correct time to fire ? because all the pamco is, is a hall effect version of a points setup. open and closing a circuit. if when I go up there I find that it truly is not switching on the green wire is that an indicator of a failed pamco unit? if so is there a way to test what ever component is failed and replace just say the transistor if you could find one online versus buying a whole new board?

If you have any questions that arn't answered in the Pamco thread.......Link posted in post no #2.....post some feed back so i can find the info and add it.........

will do. thanks everyone on here are awesome so helpful. seems to be a dying thing these days no one wants to share info anymore. we are all after the same thing its not a contest haha why the secrets.

http://www.xs650.com/threads/how-i-fixed-my-basic-pamco.46137/

Sorry I didn't have time to read this whole thread. I have had issues with a PAMCO and here's my thread.

JRay, .........added your thread to the Pamco thread last year.....under Tips and Repairs............Good work

alright update for everyone, I went and had a look at it and everything looked to be installed and wired correctly so I have it a kick and it popped a couple times so I knew it had spark so I turned the fuel on and choked it and it fired second kick. my buddy was floored haha, I told him it was just my touch and the bike knew it should run. but in all reality I found his ground wire to the pamco wasn't tight enough where he spliced it to extend the wire because after messing with it a little more we lost spark again. so I made the splice properly and heat shrinked it and it runs like a top. he just has to adjust his valves and cam chain tension and sync his carbs and he will be in the wind. once again thank you to all that posted and sent me in the right direction, the pamco is a really simple thing and I like it, no frills does exactly as it is designed.