Is a Martek ignition crappy or good?

[Ashaman]

I finally got around to looking into the black box ziptied to my downtube today, and found that it seems to be an ignition system. A bit of googling revealed that it's a Martek 1000YT electronic ignition, but not much else. The bike seems to run well enough with it, although due to lots of reasons I can't ride it right now, but should I plan on keeping this thing or ditching it as soon as I can?

 

[XSLeo]

I had one on my first 75 back in 78-79. It works a bit like the Pamco. Inside where the points were it has a sensor and a rotor to trigger the black box, then the black box told the coils when to spark.
It still uses the advancer unit from the points.
A good unit. I would run it until it quits, then put in the Pamco. Which might be a very long time.
Leo

 

[Ashaman]

Good to know. I'm assuming that since it's kind of a combo of points and Pamco, it would continue to work fine with a PMA swap? That's definitely on my short list for this bike.

 

[XSLeo]

It should be fine with the PMA. I don't know just how voltage sensetive it might be. The PMA with a cap might not get it to fire. It may need a small battery to get the ignition to work well on start up.
When you go PMA you will just have to try it both ways.
Leo

 

[Ashaman]

Good deal, thanks for the input.

 

[Liftrat]

I had a Martek years ago on my '75. IIRC, I got about 40k miles out of it before it lost the right side. I'd agree with XSLeo; run it til it breaks. I wonder what ever happened to the company?

 

[pumps]

Here are the installation instructions...just in case. Might come in handy if there was a problem.

dead link removed

 

[gggGary]

Martek Instructions
I have a complete "working when removed from Madness, about 2015" Martek set up as of 9-2019

 

[Superjet]

Looks to be for points setup only. I have see a few in Ebay for sale the last few months.

 

[650trader]

The Martec for 650's hasn't been available for at least 30 years but worked well back in the day.
Don't know why they stopped making them.

 

[MaxPete]

It’s too bad they’re out of production. In the late ‘70s, MarTeks were definitely the hot setup and all the rage for serious long distance bikers. I really wanted one but they weren’t available in Canada so I was stymied.

I had bought a brand new (but leftover) 1979 Suzuki GS850G in the spring of 1981 and it was one of the last four-cylinder bikes that had points. That summer, I rode it to California and when visiting a Suzuki dealership in LA, I found that MarTek ignition systems were on sale - so I had one installed while they were doing an oil change, for the princely sum of about $79 USD.

Needless to say, it worked perfectly and caused no grief at all for the next 15 years and nearly 140,000 km that I owned that bike.

I’d buy another MarTek for my XS650s now - without hesitation.

Pete