PAMCO SCEPTIC

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tesla

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I have to admit I was a tad bit sceptical about the abilities of the PAMCO. With all the hype I have been sitting on the fence as to whether or not the PAMCO system does bring benefit vs. a point system that for all intensive purposes works just fine.

My scepticism was absolutely squashed yesterday when I received my PAMCO in the mail. In short..... I was wrong.
I installed with ease and used a Mikes XS 17-6810 coil.
Within an hour and a half I had set the timing and was on the road.

Some points: (pun intended)
-The idle is far smoother.
-I could set the idle below 1000 rpm with no issue if wanted.
-There is a marked improvement in acceleration and smoothness. (I'm tipping a tad more power too)
-deceleration was also far smoother.
-I now have to adjust clutch as when riding hard as there is a little slip due to bump in acceleration ability. Hah, who would have thought.

I do however have one question for Pete, What is the optimal distance for the magnet to hall effect sensor? is there a benefit to being closer or further away from flux field?
most advance rods have a little play so this change in distance will change the flux position. Just curious.

So shit... this thing rocks, If you have doubts.... think twice. I'm glad I did.

Thanks Pete.

76 with home made PMA swap.
 
Yes indeed, most of us have known this for quite a few years now. Pete designed and makes a great product. In case you don't have it, the E-advancer is another big improvement.
 
I think it's awesome. I've ridden this thing over 1500 miles in the past 2 months and have kicked it less in that time than I did the last Saturday I spent jacking with it in my dad's shop 3 years ago!
 
tesla said:
I have to admit I was a tad bit sceptical about the abilities of the PAMCO. With all the hype I have been sitting on the fence as to whether or not the PAMCO system does bring benefit vs. a point system that for all intensive purposes works just fine.

My scepticism was absolutely squashed yesterday when I received my PAMCO in the mail. In short..... I was wrong.
I installed with ease and used a Mikes XS 17-6810 coil.
Within an hour and a half I had set the timing and was on the road.

Some points: (pun intended)
-The idle is far smoother.
-I could set the idle below 1000 rpm with no issue if wanted.
-There is a marked improvement in acceleration and smoothness. (I'm tipping a tad more power too)
-deceleration was also far smoother.
-I now have to adjust clutch as when riding hard as there is a little slip due to bump in acceleration ability. Hah, who would have thought.

I do however have one question for Pete, What is the optimal distance for the magnet to hall effect sensor? is there a benefit to being closer or further away from flux field?
most advance rods have a little play so this change in distance will change the flux position. Just curious.

So shit... this thing rocks, If you have doubts.... think twice. I'm glad I did.

Thanks Pete.

76 with home made PMA swap.
Click to expand...

Tesla,

I think I'm going to frame this post!

Glad you are happy with the product. The gap between the sensor and the magnets in the rotor is not critical (within reason, of course). The sensor has a cone shaped area of detection and as the magnet moves away from the sensor, this cone widens which compensates for the slightly reduced strength of the magnet. The aftermarket advance rods, like the ones from MikesXS are 1mm longer than stock, which has .5mm of end play, so for a perfect, but unnecessary, installation, you could use a .5mm shim washer to compensate, but not needed in your case with a stock '76 advance rod. The new E-Advancer setup completely eliminates end play and rotor oscillation, of course, because it is bolted to the cam shaft with no movement at all. Removing the slight oscillation of the advance rod does improve smoothness of the engine.

Please be careful with that 17-6810 "Green Monster" coil. That is the coil that will instantly fry itself and the PAMCO if you run it with one plug wire disconnected even for an instant. A better choice would be the 17-6903 "Ultimate" coil which is less expensive, a better performer and does not self destruct with one wire disconnected.

Here is a video of the 17-6903 "Ultimate" coil running with one wire disconnected:

 
Thanks Pete,
I did want the ultimate coil but xs650 direct are absolutely useless at keeping stock of just about anything. So green monster it is for now. If by some chance one day I forget and blow the unit I will just buy the burnt out igbt or Hall effect sensor and replace. Not a big deal.

I noticed today that I have a stumble under idle whilst hot and sitting at the lights. (This was present before PAMCO) Have to solve that one now but I'm tipping its a carb issue. It drops from 1k rpm to about 250 and then back up....... Sometimes. Stalled a couple of times.
Before I write the list below, yes I have read every cab guide and would consider myself farly well versed with carbs in general. ( what's that saying about knowledge, a little about a lot is dangerous. Yeah I butchered that........)

1976
Bs28
Idle is 30
Main is 130
Needle is 4th from top.
Xs pod filters.
Emgo megaphones short. Small amount of fibreglass installed.
No vacuum leaks on carbs
They are clean.
Floats set at 25 mm.
PMA.
Oh and I almost forgot...... Running pamco! awesome.

Anyone got any ideas?
 
Last edited:
Lean your needles a step or two. You're richer than stock (#3 slot) now and that usually won't work with larger jets. Also ditch the XS pods and get some UNIs. You may never get it tuned perfectly with those filters.
 
Thanks 5twins. I did a bunch of plug chops to check lean vs rich and they all showed up lean. That's how I ended up where I am. Yeah the xs filters are a little shitty. Maybe I will go the other way to position 2 on the needles and see how it turns out.

Cheers. Happy Friday.
 
Tesla,

Don't overlook the possibility that you may have a low battery voltage at idle. Even though both cylinders get their spark at the same time from the same coil, one of the plugs is getting a positive voltage while the other is getting a negative voltage from that dual output coil. The positive voltage spark plug requires 40% more energy to produce the same amount of heat as the negative plug, so with low battery voltage at idle it's possible that the cylinder with the positive plug is not getting enough voltage to fire the mixture. This is not the same thing as a miss. The plug is still firing, but just does not get hot enough to ignite the mixture or it doesn't ignite the mixture completely resulting in a weak power stroke. When the engine revs are up and the PMA is producing more voltage, the problem goes away. This condition would be especially true with a capacitor setup, but can occur with a battery setup as well, even with the stock alternator.
 
Hmmm,
That's an interesting thought. I'm running a small 14AH shorai battery with PMA. I will do a test without my headlight on and see what happens. But why would it only happen with the engine hot? Voltage is 13.2 off and 14.1 at 1K rpm. It's raining cats and dogs here today so will setup the carbs a little leaner as per 5twins and see what happens tomorrow.

Cheers.
 

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