first start with pma and pamco...need some help

[dunnroadmafia]

Well the time has come to try and start this thing. Its a 78 with hughs pma and pamco ignition set up for kick only. So far no go, my question is how many volts should i be getting out of the reg/rec per kick, i had a voltmeter on it set to DC connect to the outputs (green and red wire) and highest per kick was roughly 1.1 volts, is this a satisfactory amount or no?

Thanks
quinn

 

[ippytattoo]

Since this is your first start with the pma and pamco you would be best to hook the pamco up to a secondary known good fully charged battery, the battery could just be sitting on the ground next to the bike, so that you can test the pma for any unusual voltages (either high or low). Once you get it running, timed and idling correctly then you can go ahead and wire the pamco in with the rest of the bike running on the capacitor. PamcoPete has written about this several times take a look at some of his posts for exact directions on how to do this.

 

[dunnroadmafia]

Perfect.....thing started up first kick hooking it up as you described, checked the output on my reg/rec and was getting about 4.3 volts DC at idle, is this an acceptable reading. I did leave it run and charge the capacitor and the cap showed a reading of 12 volts after roughly a minute at idle, so now it will start with the pma hooked to the cap. But is the reading of 4.3 from the pma kit good?

 

[ippytattoo]

Did you have the Reg/rec hooked up with the rest of the wiring on the bike when you got the 4.3v? Normally with the charging system hooked up and the bike running you should see about 13.2v at idle and about 14.2v at 3000rpm. If it was just hooked up to the stator and not the rest of the wiring then you could get some odd voltage readings but I am not 100% sure on this as I have never tested it like that myself. You can have everything hooked up as usual and test votage across the 2 posts on the cap while it is running and if you are getting the correct voltage you should be good. One downfall of running a capacitor is that the energy stored can disipate rather quickly as it is essentially just a very very small battery that is being used to smooth out the voltage from the reg/rec. On the same note it should also charge very rapidly, I don't have specifics as to charging time but I would tend to think it would be in the millisecond range not 1 minute.

 

[dunnroadmafia]

Figured it out, it was due to some solder on the yellow wires from the stator not letting the blades in the connector seat properly, thus causing a poor connection, thanks for all your input i really apperciate it, nice bike by the way i dig the rat look. Thanks again!

Quinn

 

[Jon1wdsmen]

I have done the pemco/PMA swap on my 80 Xs. When I first started with the Pma wired to my jeep batt I got 13.2 at idle, and 14.4 at 3000. I put a brand new fully charged batt in the bike and wired in the Pma ( red to pos of batt and green to neg of batt). Now I don't show 13.2 at idle it shows 12.05 with lights on, at 3000 it still shows the 14.4. Why am I not getting 13.2 + at idle???

 

[pamcopete]

Jon1wdsmen,

You probably had the headlight off with the first test. 12.05 at idle with the lights on with 14.4 at 3,000 RPM is a good reading.