Points Upgrade or Improvements Advice Needed

[Chrispy]

Evening All,

So I have a stock 78 still running points and a lot of other old things waiting to break. She had been running really well but is now starting to miss on the left side and run poorly, occasionally backfiring. So I'm going through the circuit of is it fuel or is it ignition, and after looking at these ancient coils and points i've concluded that even if the main problem isn't ignition, it needs an upgrade either way. so my questions are thus:

1. Is there a currently recommended ignition setup? I know the PAMCO was pretty much perfect but it seems like those are no longer feasible to acquire. I've heard people speak highly of the Boyer but it does not seem nearly as common. So whatever thoughts you guys have here in 2021 please let me know.

2. If not a whole trigger upgrade, how can I best maximize the points? I recently rewired the bike so the connections are clean and it gets good power, but its original coils and caps from what I can tell. What are the best replacement coils for points? Cap suggestions?

any advice is appreciated. Just want her to run more gooder.
Chris

 

[willis]

There is a newer points upgrade out there called Tytronics. There's a few threads out there on them that are promising. I bought a set but have not installed them. I think Gggary has run it on one of his bikes with good results. I just tried the search function but it is not currently working and appears to be down. Maybe once it is back up and operational you can find some more info on it. I'll try again later to see if the search tool is back up.

 

[XSLeo]

How old are the points you have in the bike now? I ask because the spring gets weaker the older the ponts are. The rubbing block that rides on the cam wears also. Adding a dab of gease at this point prolongs life. If very old you might want to try new ones. They don't cost much.
Another thing is the condenser pack. It may be failing.
On the coils I'm not sure just what is available as an upgrade. Mike's sells a repop of the stock coil. They are not all that great but better trhan 45 year old ones.
Most any coil you find with a 5 ohm primary will function in the system but may not fit in the space the current coils do.
Perhaps someone nows more about this than I.
Leo

 

[aldo5468]

Evening All,

So I have a stock 78 still running points and a lot of other old things waiting to break. She had been running really well but is now starting to miss on the left side and run poorly, occasionally backfiring. So I'm going through the circuit of is it fuel or is it ignition, and after looking at these ancient coils and points i've concluded that even if the main problem isn't ignition, it needs an upgrade either way. so my questions are thus:

1. Is there a currently recommended ignition setup? I know the PAMCO was pretty much perfect but it seems like those are no longer feasible to acquire. I've heard people speak highly of the Boyer but it does not seem nearly as common. So whatever thoughts you guys have here in 2021 please let me know.

2. If not a whole trigger upgrade, how can I best maximize the points? I recently rewired the bike so the connections are clean and it gets good power, but its original coils and caps from what I can tell. What are the best replacement coils for points? Cap suggestions?

any advice is appreciated. Just want her to run more gooder.
Chris

check www.650Central.com under "ignition" in the drop-down menu

 

[tekk220]

I have a 1977..ended up being weakened advance springs that won't snap back.. I ended up replacing it all with a Boyer Ignition

 

[lakeview]

Sounds like a candidate for the GN 250 ignitor box modification.

 

[650Skull]

You have been having this problem for a long time........fixed the advance weights plate and it is still happening.........if it is in the coil,leads or caps the problem wont go away with a new ignition................well it might if you replace the coils leads and caps at the same time, but then you won't know what was the real cause and it could still b something else timing related...

 

[5twins]

One of the first things I do when I get one of these is replace the plug wires and caps. The stock plug caps can and do go bad. They are resistor caps and when going bad, that resistance starts to climb. Once it gets too high, it will start choking off the spark. It's easy to test for, just measure the resistance through the cap. I have found several bad ones over the years. Over the years, many of the caps used had a rather high rating of 8K to 10K ohms. You're better off using NGK 5K ohm caps, and if running points you can even use zero ohm non-resistor caps.

 

[gggGary]

My Tytronics story is in the WJL thread. WJL AKA Wrenchjohns Legacy 70 XS1 in gggGary's hands
I had an early set that failed quickly but tytronics replaced it with the latest version for free. I had put the bike back to points and it' ran bing bang all summer so haven't messed with changing again. Billy Icon has had his Tytronics runnig for a "while"

 

[Chrispy]

thanks for the suggestions guys. Seems like the classic dichotomy of analog and digital. You can fix analog gear with some know how but you WILL have to fix it. Digital stuff probably wont break but if it does your knackered. So based on these responses and eliminating other potential issues over the past couple days it seems like the best move is to replace the coils, plug wires, and caps. Definitely cheaper than the new full ignition and the most likely candidate of failure. I'll order some today and report back