XS charge ignition plate doesn’t fit?

79josh81

79josh81

XS650 Addict
Messages
427
Reaction score
419
Points
63
Location
Kiel, Wisconsin
i recently purchased an XS charge ignition kit with the advance. After I got the advance and rod all squared away I went to the left side to put the ignition plate in. It did not fit and the issue was the circuit board being outside of the plate edge and the actual plate ended up being a little to big as well.

Long story short I had to dremel the outside of the plate to knock down the sharp unside edge and also had to knock the corners of the circuit board down (I mean barely removed anything from the board). I would have removed material from the bike only but I would have had to remove way too much to make that circuit board work.

The ignition is in now and it is still as tight as it could be without breaking the plate to get it in. My question is has anyone else had to slightly modify these or the points housing to make it fit as well?

(This is a pamco but similar to the XS charge. The black arrows indicate where I had to take corners off the circuit board.)
46D8473E-29EA-4505-B400-75F09D70D9F7.jpeg
 
Last edited:
You said you purchased this at Mikes. If that’s so, then it is not made by Pamco. They are outsourcing production of Pamco knock offs, the knock offs even say Pamco on the circuit boards. Below is a photo of an original Pamco on my bike. The photo is a little blurry due to being enlarged, but you can see differences in the shape of the board.
The one in your photo looks to be more square, also you can see diffences in circuit board layout. And no I did not have to modify the shape of the board on the one I have to make it fit. I hope that helps you.

2E7DDAFC-9D18-41E3-81D3-BB9186B4F65D.jpeg
 
The one in the photo isn’t mine but some pic I pulled off the internet. And correct, mine isn’t a pamco but it’s really similar to the one in the picture with the way the circuit board is. I definitely was not happy I had to modify a $200 ignition. Either way it’s in now and it fits tight.
 
But how tight? Can you rotate the plate so you can adjust the ignition timing? Complaints seem to be flooding in about these Pamco knock-offs. Mostly they are about them not working. This is the first I've seen about them not fitting.
 
Yeah it rotates fine now. It was just annoying more than anything to have to mess with it instead of me being able to just slap it on.

Hey while I got you here 5twins, is it a thing that people are putting a fuse up by the coil and ignition? I seem to remember reading somewhere that guys are doing it but I have no idea why or where they’re putting the fuse. Does this sound familiar?
 
Yes, PamcoPete recommends fusing the power wire to the Pamco and/or the coil with a 7.5 amp fuse. He prefers the coil to be fused because I guess if it shorts out, it can feed back through the wire running to the Pamco and fry it.
 
Yes, a fuse where you have the arrow. If you have yours wired like that drawing, that will also fuse the wire running to the Pamco.
 
On your circuit board. Could you loosen the mount screw then slide the circuit board over bit?
Leo
 
I thought about it but since I had the dremel out already to clean up the sharp edges on the plate and considering I had to only knock the corners down and they weren’t close to any circuitry, I just smoothed the corners over. I think the other reason I didn’t try to loosen the set screw and slide it over is because I don’t think, at the time, I believed there was enough play with that circuit board to slide it over far enough to clear the corners.
 
Yeah I will but I’m at work right now until tomorrow morning so I’ll have to do it tomorrow. It fits now but I think I could point out on the pic where I trimmed it.
 
5098DCAB-5EDB-43BC-98D9-2900FDBB96E4.jpeg
The spots where there were corners are indicated by the black arrows on the picture. The issue was that these corners of the circuit board each stuck out, one on each side, of the chrome cover threaded hole you can see in the picture. It essentially made it impossible for me to get the plate in and then rotate it after the fact to set the timing if that makes sense. The side of the circuit board directly against the threaded hole in the picture had to get shaved a tiny bit too just so I could get it past the threaded hole. I even tried to put the plate in circuit board-side first but then the opposite side of the plate wouldn’t seat down.
 
Are you trying to see if it has the pamco label on it? Because it doesn’t. I really don’t want to take the rotor off because I finally got the bike running this afternoon and it’s all loctite-ed on already. Ignition is working and the timing is perfect so I don’t want to mess up a good thing somehow. Lol I just edited the title of the thread as well so that the pamco name isn’t associated with my issue.
 
Last edited:
Yeah I got the same one but with the advance assembly and rod. Like I said she works fine now. I know there’s some guys on here that talk a lot of shit about mikesxs sometimes. Honestly, I’ve never had an issue that they didn’t resolve and they’ve always been quick to reply to any questions I’ve ever had about any products. I’m sure if I told them it didn’t fit they would have probably had me send it back to ship me a new one. I’m just impatient so I modified it slightly to get it to fit.
 

Similar threads

R
My experience with the xs charge and XSCharge electronic advance ignitions
2
Replies
32
Views
2K
Flash1977
Flash1977
ebbaga
XS650F misfire between 4000 and 5000 RPM. Boyer ignition.
Replies
3
Views
363
Raymond
Raymond
JBMatthews82
Ignition trouble?
Replies
1
Views
341
Raymond
Raymond
Alllooksnnogo
MikesXS Gen 2 ignition issues.
Replies
10
Views
1K
Alllooksnnogo
Alllooksnnogo
JBMatthews82
Ignition trouble when hot?
Replies
7
Views
493
JBMatthews82
JBMatthews82
Back
Top