PMA/PAMCO wiring diagram

[XSLeo]

Turn signals are a very basic circuit. Hook to power after the main switc h, add a 10 amp fuse, run a wire to a flasher, from the flasher to the turn switch, from the turn switch to the signals.
I would use wires the same color as stock to make things easier to trouble shoot. Power after the switch to the fuse and from the fuse to the flasher brown wire, From the flasher to the turn switch brown/white wire. From the turn switch Chocolate for the left side, dark green for the right.
Hook in indicaters in the dash off the front turns.
Leo

 

[RCGRT]

ember,

My standard recommendation is to wire the PAMCO temporarily to a separate battery to get the engine running so you can trouble shoot the PMA. If you have the capacitor wired in with reverse polarity, it will blow up as soon as the engine starts, so wear safety glasses (this is no joke).

One of four things will happen when you first fire up a PMA conversion:

1. The engine will start immediately, you will get 14.5 Volts on the cap and life will be beautiful! (Yeah, right...)
2. The engine will not start because you are getting zero output from the PMA and you will break your leg kicking it with no joy....
3. The engine will start immediately but the PMA will produce a destructive 20+ Volts and fry the entire electrical system, including the PAMCO...
4. The engine will start immediately but because you wired the capacitor in backwards the cap will explode and spray shrapnel all over the garage, killing the cat....

Be careful and use a Voltmeter....

Ok, I'm getting close to finishing up my 277 project motor, and planning on doing a very simple wiring set up like the one Pete posted up on this thread.
This post by Pete has got me a little concerned, I certainly do not want to fry my 277 pamco, or blow up the sparx capacitor. I'm confident I can put every thing in place properly per Petes drawing. However, is there anything I can check on the individual components to make sure they will perform as they should prior to starting the motor?

-PMA is from Hugh

-Sparx capacitor (not sure which side is which + / -, but from what I have read the side with two terminals is the +)

-Pamco 277 (kit from mikes with the giant green coils) mechanical advance

-Plan is kick only, One main toggle after the main 20amp fuse, one toggle (kill on/off) and a 7.5amp fuse inline to the ignition circuit, and one other toggle for the headlight (on/off/on)

I have no problem using my battery temporarily for the initial start (I'm not sure exactly what this does, but I'm going to take Petes word for it)

Where exactly should I check the voltage during the initial start? And at what "High" voltage should I panic and shut it off if it does occur?

Any help / advice much appreciated.
Thanks in advance

 

[Kyle deGans]

With a new kill switch that has a 6 wire coupler on it, how do i attach the pamco ignition into the kill switch?
After that, how do i go about attaching the pamco ignition into a brand new wire harness that is ment to have the points system wired into it?
Are there wires on the stock harness that im not going to be using?
My bike is a '79 XS650 special, if theres any one who can guide me through step by step that would be greatly appreciated.

 

[XSLeo]

RCGRT, As you see in your quote it lists a few possibilities when you start your bike with a PMA. Hooking a battery to just the ignition, starting the bike, the bike runs off the battery. The PMA can now be tested for proper function. With the bike at idle you should get about 12-13 volts or so. Rev the engine up a bit. About 2500 rpms, the voltage should come up to around 14.5 volts. If you rev it up more it should never go above 14.5 volts.
If you have no voltage, low voltage or high voltage, above 15 volts, you need to check the wiring on the stator to reg/rec and from the reg/rec to the cap and grounds.
Doing it this way is a safety measure to ensure the PMA is working before you wire the ignition to the PMA.
A high voltage spike of up to 20 volts can occur if the PMA isn't right. With the ignition wired to a spare battery the high voltage can't hurt the ignition. Maybe blow light bulbs but they won't cost much to replace.
Kyle, an engine stop switch with 6 wires? It must have more than just the engine stop switch. Is it a right side switch housing?
The engine stop switch needs at most two wires, power in, power out. Hook the power in after the main switch, power out goes to the Pamco and coil. You need to figure out which wires they are. A pic of your switch might help us help you.
On the 79 stock wiring the power wire to the coils is a red/white wire. It will have a two place female plug in on it. Attach bullet connectors to the red wire of the Pamco and one of the primary wires of the coil. Plug these into the connector on the red/white wires.
It's all explained on Pamcopete's ignition web site. www.yamahaxs650.com
Leo

 

[RCGRT]

RCGRT, As you see in your quote it lists a few possibilities when you start your bike with a PMA. Hooking a battery to just the ignition, starting the bike, the bike runs off the battery. The PMA can now be tested for proper function. With the bike at idle you should get about 12-13 volts or so. Rev the engine up a bit. About 2500 rpms, the voltage should come up to around 14.5 volts. If you rev it up more it should never go above 14.5 volts.
If you have no voltage, low voltage or high voltage, above 15 volts, you need to check the wiring on the stator to reg/rec and from the reg/rec to the cap and grounds.
Doing it this way is a safety measure to ensure the PMA is working before you wire the ignition to the PMA.
A high voltage spike of up to 20 volts can occur if the PMA isn't right. With the ignition wired to a spare battery the high voltage can't hurt the ignition. Maybe blow light bulbs but they won't cost much to replace.
Leo

Leo,
Thanks for the info. It makes a little more sense now, Pete also emailed me back last night and said pretty much the same thing. So to be clear, when I first fire it up, I will have the Pma wired to the capacitor, I will have one red wire going out for my power, but I will leave that wire disconnected, this is the wire where I can check my voltage from the pma? Correct? The pamco will be wired (running off of) to the battery. Pete also suggested that I have my headlight wired in and test voltage with the light on and off. I'm certainly no expert with wiring, so I'll just rig up some temporary wires until I know it all works correctly, then I'll clean it up and make it permanent.
Also, can any one tell me for sure what side of the cap is + and -? I really don't want to blow the thing up...
Thanks again..

 

[XSLeo]

I have not used a PMA with a cap, but from what I have read the two prongs are the positive and the single prong is the negitive. They might have a band of color around the prongs, red is positive, black negitive.
Leo

 

[Kyle deGans]

My mistake, that is like mine but mine is black,and it only have 4 wires, red/white, blue/white, brown and black.
If i don't have to i really dont want to cut anything that i have, i the 4 wires on my kill switch are all in a coupler that attaches into the wire harness, if i locate the wires from the harness that plugged into the old points, can i just attach the coils and pamco together in one bullet connector on each wire and then into the wires from the harness?
If that makes easy sence to you?
What i'm trying to say is 1) plug kill switch coupler into my stock wire harness
2) cut bullet connectors off the coils and splice in wires from pamco ignition then attach new bullet connetors
3) fine wires from stock wire harness that the old coils plugged into
On my bike, i don't have a PMA, i still have the stock alternator.

 

[XSLeo]

ON that switch the red/white and brown are most likey the engine stop switch wires. Power in on the brown, out on the red/white. Blue/white is starter. It should plug right into your stock harness. The Black wire wasn't used on the stock switches. Not using it won't effect how it works. You can add the black wire in the plug the switch plugs into and hook it into the harness ground or run it out of the headlight bucket and back under the tank to a coil mount bolt.
This will just add an extra ground path for the handlebars.
The PMA reference was to RCGRT. He was asking about the cap he is using with his PMA.
Leo

 

[RCGRT]

I have not used a PMA with a cap, but from what I have read the two prongs are the positive and the single prong is the negitive. They might have a band of color around the prongs, red is positive, black negitive.
Leo

Got it, yeah the side with two prongs has a faint red color around the base of the prongs, but it's very light and the other side is not marked at all, Sounds like from everything I've read the side with two is the + side.
Thanks again...

 

[Kyle deGans]

Ok. So I can just plug it into the wire harness?
How about what I said about the coils and ignition module, am I allowed to splice and connect them and just plug them into the wire harness?

 

[Kyle deGans]

Got the red and green wiring all set up, but 2 quick questions, where is the best place to ground it?
And with the alternator, the 3 white wires coming out, does it matter which white wires they connect to on the wire harness?
Reason i ask is because ive got 3 white coming off the alternator, and 2 solid white and a white/black on the harness.

 

[retiredgentleman]

Got the red and green wiring all set up, but 2 quick questions, where is the best place to ground it?
And with the alternator, the 3 white wires coming out, does it matter which white wires they connect to on the wire harness?
Reason i ask is because ive got 3 white coming off the alternator, and 2 solid white and a white/black on the harness.

The black wire from a Pamco must go to bare metal on the bike's frame (assuming that you have your battery negative cable also connected to the frame's bare metal.) If you were using a battery sitting on the floor by itself, then the black would have to go directly back to the battery negative terminal.

Your alternator's 3 white wires must connect to the 3 white wires of the rectifier. There is no order...................connect any white to any white.

 

[Kyle deGans]

The black wire from a Pamco must go to bare metal on the bike's frame (assuming that you have your battery negative cable also connected to the frame's bare metal.) If you were using a battery sitting on the floor by itself, then the black would have to go directly back to the battery negative terminal.

Your alternator's 3 white wires must connect to the 3 white wires of the rectifier. There is no order...................connect any white to any white.[/QUOT

so your saying if i can to connect it to where my battery terminal negative is?
If not then i can explose the metal where the old coils where and bolt it there?
and thanks about the white wires, safer to ask a experienced person then just to go and do it and have something screwing up. I've got my rectifier plugged in and the white wires are ran through the harness casing to the alternator connector.

 

[Kyle deGans]

Hey,
so i installed the pamco ignition module and dualoutput coils exactly as i was told, followed the correct steps and such, have a fully charged battery and thought i was ready to rock n roll, hooked it all back up, turned the key, turned the handlebar switch to run, pressed the start button and nothing, thought maybe it just needs a couple pumps of the kickstart, nothing, theres lots of compression, the motor turns over but no sound of fire, any advice? Could it be my carbs? Could it be something else with my electrical?

 

[pmalace]

Have an issue, hooked up the wiring as PAMCOPETE described, started right up yet the toggle switch does not kill the engine, seems to keep the PMA energized continuous. Bad toggle maybe? Currently not wiring anything else into the system until I get the bike to run and shut off. Then will wire the headlight and breaklight into the system. trying attach pic of the toggle I am using, prongs labeled; power, ACC, and ground. Appreciate all the help/info.....great site

 

[XSLeo]

pmalace, I don't know just how you have it wired but I think you miswired it somewhere. You should have the PMA output wired to the cap. Then from this junction you should have it run to a main fuse, from the main fuse to the switch, Then from the switch to the ignition.
That switch must be a lighted switch. That's the only reason for a ground connection, so the lighted lever lights up.
Hook the power terminal to the fuse coming from the PMA/cap. Hook everything else to the acc terminal.
You want the main switch to separate the source of power from the rest of the bike. The PMA/cap is your source of power.
Leo

 

[pmalace]

pmalace, I don't know just how you have it wired but I think you miswired it somewhere. You should have the PMA output wired to the cap. Then from this junction you should have it run to a main fuse, from the main fuse to the switch, Then from the switch to the ignition.
That switch must be a lighted switch. That's the only reason for a ground connection, so the lighted lever lights up.
Hook the power terminal to the fuse coming from the PMA/cap. Hook everything else to the acc terminal.
You want the main switch to separate the source of power from the rest of the bike. The PMA/cap is your source of power.
Leo

I am using wiring connector caps now for ease. But according to Pete's diagram I am taking the red positive from regulator to the battery and also connecting it with the twist cap to the fuse. Is that right? Wiring other end of fuse directly to "power" on the toggle. out the "ACC" on toggle tying together red from coil and PAMCO

 

[XSLeo]

Wiring connector caps, the big screw on caps like house electrical is done? Will that may be ok for testing but fix it right for actual use. Solder and heat shrink tubing.
Power from the PMA/cap goes to a 20 amp main fuse From this fuse to the power on your switch. Everything else hooks to the ACC.
When your switch is off no power flows. When your switch is on power flows out the ACC. When the bike runs the lever on the switch probably lights up. This indicates power is flowing.
So yes the power on the switch hooks to the fuse. The ignition hooks to ACC.
Leo

 

[pmalace]

Thanks Leo, definitely going to solder and shrink tube, just using the caps to ensure everything right. That is exactly how it's wired, so will trade out toggle, cause only thing I can see why bike won't turn off, even though switch light goes out.

 

[Matt Stager]

Why does nobody have a detailed install of the Pamco electric start kit without points and e Advancer anywhere. All I find are the installs showing the points system being reused