Topic: Installing the Cycle X "Power Up Kit 2"

[MJL]

Freaky:  It's rectangular, and the way it is is the narrow way along the bike.

KB:  The electrical hook up wires. It may be possible that mine rubbed through and destroyed the unit already.    The bottom side is painted, but it's very rough like sandpaper. I used my multimeter to try to get continuity on the bottom of the tank where the connector is and couldn't.  Hopefully I didn't fry anything.


I decided to put my points back on and run it that way until I call power arc and talk to them. I couldn't get the damn thing to start. All it does it pop and fart. I think that since I took the advancer apart that maybe I put the points lobe on 180* off. I'll swap the yellow and blue coil wires and see it that makes a difference.


:edit:  I swapped the wires and it started no problem. I then called Power Arc and talked with them, he wants me to send it back so he can test it. I think I am the first Honda guy he has talked to as he had a few questions on the how everything fit. I mentioned stock style coils and he said it would cost around 60k to get that started.  He said he's sold a lot and just had one returned defective, and wants to check mine out. We'll see what he says.

[MJL]

After riding around awhile with the points in, I can honestly say that this cam made a huge differrence. Once I get the carbs dialed in and the ignition back on, it should be even better.  The exhaust is nice and muted also.

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

Aren't cams great!!

[Freaky1]

How about another video once all the bugs are worked out with the bike warm?

[MCRider]

After riding around awhile with the points in, I can honestly say that this cam made a huge differrence. Once I get the carbs dialed in and the ignition back on, it should be even better.  The exhaust is nice and muted also.

That's good to hear!

That's in a stock displacement and a stock head, right?

The original K0 was the strongest and there is no reason with a cam and a pipe that someone couldn't have at least that much power and possibly more. 

[MJL]

After riding around awhile with the points in, I can honestly say that this cam made a huge differrence. Once I get the carbs dialed in and the ignition back on, it should be even better.  The exhaust is nice and muted also.

That's good to hear!

That's in a stock displacement and a stock head, right?

The original K0 was the strongest and there is no reason with a cam and a pipe that someone couldn't have at least that much power and possibly more.  

As far as I know it's all stock.  I want to put it on a dyno and see what it makes now. That would be video worthy.

[MJL]

I had trouble with my ignition so I called tech and talked to them, they had me send it back for testing. I think what happened is that my coil connector plug was pressed up against the gas tank hard enough to push the wires through the insulation and short the system, but when I tried to probe it with a multimeter I got nothing.

Now I have another one, and I mounted the coil in the same place but turned sideways. It seems strange to put the long side perpendicular to the frame, but is fits a lot better. the coil connector is in no way able to rub through and the plug caps barely touch the tank. I checked this by putting grease on the tops of the caps and putting the tank on, then checking the bottom of the tank for grease. I had two little spots.  I'm not done yet, the tech at Power Arc wants to talk to me before I put it back in. He also told me that with all of the extra wires taped off I was running in a retarded state, which probably accounts for why it didn't seem to run as strong as I thought it would.

New coil mounting

[KB02]

...the tech at Power Arc wants to talk to me before I put it back in. He also told me that with all of the extra wires taped off I was running in a retarded state, which probably accounts for why it didn't seem to run as strong as I thought it would.

Interesting. When you get the kit from Cycle-X, they don't mention what the "4 selectable curves" actually are.

[Freaky1]

Did Power Arc offer any more help on what the power curve selections are? Are they controlled just by adding switches to your taped off wires?

[MJL]

after a few little items for my bike my next thing is goign to be one of these ignitions!!!! i'm totally a points guy! but the idea of have 3 EXTRA ignition maps sounds interesting...

Ken said that if you ground the BLUE wire you get a semi- agressive map
if you ground JUST the brown wire you get a simi- semi- agressive map
if you GROUND BOTH WIRES YOU BETTER BE HANG'N ON EVEN ON A STOCK BIKE BECAUSE ITS REALY AGGRESSIVE MAP!

my idea was to put a DIAL on the handle bars and then you could "dial" in what map you wanted!

[Freaky1]

OK I feel stupid, but now I really want to get one on this winter but I think I'm going to go with Carpys Yoshi replica exhaust and just the electric half of the power setup.

[MilehighCB]

I bought a Power Arc ignition system and have been hanging back waiting to learn what others have done and try not to ask too many stupid questions.  But figure I better jump in and start asking, so bear with me please.

Mounting:  I started out with mounting it the way you have it now, with the plug to the back.  Made a small alum. plate for it to rest on and seems to have plenty of room under and around the sides of the tank.  Seems to be fine but I don't have plug wires on the coils yet.

Spark plug Wires:  Well, maybe I am looking too hard or not hard enough, but all I am finding at local auto parts stores are "Spiral core" wires.  Looked on eBay for Carbon core wires and only can find them in blue.  Call me anal, but I want black ones.  Please send some info on what wires you have found, what they originally came on and any other info you can.

Wiring:  I think I have this figured out, but please let me know if what I am thinking is correct.  There are 3 wires off the ignition coil plug, black, white and red.  Simply "T" the factory kill switch wire (black with white stripe) into the red power arc wire (assume this powers the PA ignition).
Connect the 3 wires from the Encoder rotor to the 3 wires from he ignition plug, color for color.  (seems easy enough)??
The "optional" blue and brown wires that you originally just taped off appear to actually need be grounded, or at least one of them or you run in a retard state.  I am thinking I will need to ground at least one of them.  I don't want to go too aggressive right off the start and cause problems.  What did you ground them to?  Did you simply run a wire from one of those blue or brown wires to the frame, or tie it into another wire?  If I want to only run one spark curve for now and not switch between them, what is the simplest way?
It seems that you can simply bypass the original factory wires and just run the PA wire from the Encoder wire to the PA ignition plug..correct me if I'm wrong?

Well those are what I can think of at this point, thank you for you responses.

[MJL]

When I mounted my coil I didn't take into account the coil plug, and that's what caused the original issue.  When I turned it sideways it seems to fit fine.

Plug wires, head for the parts store and get some generic OEM wires for an 80's Chevy with v8. Stock wires like that are carbon core.

Tee the red wires together with the coil power wire (black w/ white stripe), then connect the black to black and the white to white.  Gary at Power Arc told me to ground the brown wire, so I did, by going to straight to battery. I didn't want to scrape paint off the frame and try to solder to it.  When I first put it in I used bullet connectors so I could plug into the factory coil connection.  Good thing too as I ended up putting my points back in for awhile, and I realized how much bad points suck.

[MilehighCB]

Thanks for the response.

I think I will run the Power Arc wires from the Encoder wheel to the ignition coils.  The brown wire needs to be grounded, and there is always the unused mystery green wire in the trio of wires to the horn?  Or I could ground it to the frame where the large gauge wire green wire is by the stock coils. 

I realize you have done a couple things at one time to the bike when you did the power Arc, but did you notice a difference when you ditched the points after the cam?  Understanding the cam alone would change performance from what you were used to, but then you said you switched back to points.  Guess what I'm asking is what sort of changes did you see with the power Arc?  Snappier throttle response, fast rev's, more top end, more bottom end, better idle, smoother acceleration, better cold starts.....
Power Arc can say the product does all that and more, but wanting to get some real world feedback.
Thanks, again, I'm sure I will have more questions.

[MJL]

The "mystery green wire" is for a tach, if you wanted to hook one up.  Don't ground it out.

Right away I noticed it idled smoother. It does start easier also.  It's not the first time I converted a motor from points to an electronic ignition, the other was a '64 Scout with a tired 4 cylinder. That truck idled a lot smoother also.  My bike will also idle lower than it did before, but now that is becoming a carb issue rather than ignition.

Points are maintenance intensive, that is they wear out and have to be replaced, they have to be adjusted, the points cam wears and throws things off, and I'm not the kind of guy to want to have to fiddle with things all the time.


When I switched back to points, I had to swap out my good points for the cruddy old ones that were in there when I got the bike. The good ones got damaged during the engine R&R since I didn't have the points cover on because I didn't want to damage it.  the crusty old points did not idle well at all and the bike often ran on 3 cylinders. It was thoroughly unenjoyable to ride as the missing cylinder would go in and out, and I had to rev it when I stopped to keep it running. Once the PAI went in all that cleared up.

[MilehighCB]

The green wire I ment was the one on the bike near the stock coils that has nothing hooked up to it.  I didn't mean the green wire from the power arc unit.  I don't think I need to hook up the green wire from the PA unit that runs the tach as I'm running the stock tach. 

I will just ground the brown wire from the PA unit for that setting, btw, did you try grounding both wires and hold on tight?  Seems the brown ground gives you middle of the road setting...correct?

Thank you for the info, I will post more questions and maybe some pics when I get there.

[KB02]

I was planning on setting up two switches near the indicator lights so that I can switch between the curves when I wanted to. I've got mine set according to the instructions right now. I've just got to fiddle with carb settings and then I should be ready to try some different "curves" out.

[MilehighCB]

What about a 3 position switch for the different curve wires.  That would simplify mounting 1 switch that could be used for the different settings?

Hope it helps...

[Freaky1]

I was thinking of one of those switches that has the red flip cover for the "way" advanced.

[Pinhead]

What about using a hobbs switch to select/adjust your ignition advance?

[KB02]

What is a "hobbs" switch. Pardon my ignorance. 

[MJL]

What about using a hobbs switch to select/adjust your ignition advance?

A vacuum switch? Could be done, it's one of the things that Gary and I talked about, your advance curve would change as the engine load increased.

[Pinhead]

What is a "hobbs" switch. Pardon my ignorance. 

A vacuum switch that opens/closes at certain pressure (or vacuum) levels. I believe there are some that have multiple switches and are adjustable...

[samuryan]

I have this ignition on my new to me (non running) bike.  Can someone point me towards the instructions of how to set this up, and or a wiring diagram?  Thanks

[MJL]

I'm trying to remember exactly how it goes. I don't know exactly where my paperwork is, so I'm going by memory. There is a red, black and white wires that go to the coil plug, the red wire gets tied to the coil power also. The blue wire and the brown wire are for changing the advance curve. There is some talk about it elsewhere in this thread.

http://www.powerarc.com/ids/idshelp/vp2cyl4.htm
http://www.powerarc.com/ids/idshelp/installation.htm

To time it, unplug the wires from the coil and loosen the nut that holds the encoder wheel. Keep it finger tight so that you can turn the wheel on the shaft and it stays where you put it. Now turn the bike on and rotate the encoder wheel opposite normal direction. When the TDC line goes under the sensor the TDC light will go on. Now carefully tighten that nut and you are done.

Just a reminder, but the engine should be at TDC when you take the points off and install this.