electronic ignition and carb conversion

[richrd]

Me again. Looking closer at this thing, the AU looks rough, and my first thought is always to eliminate the points on old bikes I plan to ride. There are many options for the old british bikes, but what about these airheads?

The carbs are rough a well. I'm hoping a few sessions in the sonic cleaner and new jets will be enough, but out of curiosity, does anyone ever fit mikunis or ,,,,?

Thanks
Rich

[richrd]

I should mention that both carbs are missing the enrichner or choke parts.

[srankin]

Hello Richard, LOL, I tell everyone and may be a pain, get rid of the points! Keeping a bike tuned up is so much easier when you don't have the point wear and then have to do the replacement, gaping and timing dance.

For years on my RS I used a Dyna electronic system. I will say it was far better than points in staying in time. But, it didn't perform all that much better than the point system (when the points were adjusted properly).

I am NOT certain if there is a unit that will fit your bike but, two years ago, I changed out the Dyna system for the new kid on the block the Australian Wedgetail Electronic system. I had read about it in several spots and like what I read. I must say, I was impressed with better cold starting an smoother idle. LOL, can't say much about performance, I never did a dyne and I can only guess my feeling it was better was because I was feeling something. I don't think I was feeling wishful that it was better in ride performance.
Sadly, I can't give you long term reliability data because the bike the system was on was totaled only 5K miles after the install. It won't be going back on the road.

US sale of the unit is Motorrad Electrik or Tom Cutter's Rubber Chicken Racing. Both fellows are well know for top quality in parts, service and customer relations. I don't remember but I think I went online to Motorrad and the site kicked me over to Tom's site for the purchase?

My friend has a /5 on the bench right now (valve seat worked loose and the valve hit the piston). The owner has converted to Mikuni carbs. I am NOT an expert, have never done it but looking at it everything looks pretty much like stock. I mean the air breather parts all seem to be stock and switched to the new carbs. Can't say anything about the cables?

Perhaps contacting Tom Cutter at Rubber Chicken would point you to a source and give you an idea as to how to proceed if you want to make the change. I will warn you in advance, Tom is asking for donations of money for his time via PayPal, I KNOW that is for troubleshooting or involved technical issues, I am NOT sure if it is for a quick note asking him about parts needed an a source. He may have the parts on hand and would waive any donation with a sale.
I send him a tenner from time to time asking questions and it is money well spent.

One thing I will say, if you do swap carbs to Mikunis, be sure the source of the carbs is willing to work with in the set up and dial in. Or, they have specific carbs jetted and set up for your bike.
Good luck, St.

[Flx48]

Hi Richard-
Vape do an electronic ignition for the /5s, as well as a charging system, which can be gotten together or separately.
The caveats-
Vape caution that the larger cc engines (which I take to mean the 900/1000) with the old original starter motor may not work; as well as using with an aluminum flywheel.
In both cases I believe this is because the crank will not spin quickly enough (due to the larger displacement/higher compression) for the hall sensor to take an accurate timing read on rpm.
And their charging system is only producing 190 watts.

I've used their same system (comes with different mounting arrangement) on my '60 R69 for over 5 years with no issues, so am now mounting the same on my '56 R69, and intend on using this on the current conversion build of a /2/5 frankenbike as well.
The low charging system output is no concern for me, as I only use the lights, no other electric accessories, so more than adequate for me.

The Vape system is available direct at a little over $600, plus shipping from Europe; I've forgotten shipping cost.
There are also several vendors now selling the Vape domestically.
Google up "Vape electronic ignition for BMW R60/5".

Ditto for the Mikunis; google up "Mikuni carbs for BMW R60", there are several kits available.
It may be much more cost effective to source the missing parts for your stock carbs, unless the bodies do turn out to be beyond recovery.
Best-
George

[cbclemmens]

Rich;
I have Dynatek D35-1 electronic ignition on both my R 75/5 and my R 60/7, (not yet on my R90/6 w/sidecar). It was kind of a pain to get the magnet in just the right position, and a couple of times the magnet came loose when speed shifting at high RPM. Fortunately I don't do that very often. But once set-up it seems to work very well.

Craig
Whoops I attached this to the wrong discussion.

[srankin]

The things I liked about the Wedgetail system
It was super easy to install.
Required no splicing or messing with factory wiring. (For your bike, I am not sure if this holds true, best to ask the supplier Tom Cutter or Motorrad Electrik.)
Easy to set timing.
Looks very robust.

The only negative was mounting the ignition module. In my case, I attached with the supplies bracket to the bottom of one of the gas tank mounts. St.

[richrd]

I've gotten the carbs looking like they might work with new needles and float needles. When I get to that point, I will give them one try. If it runs, great. If not I found a mik kit to order.

[clarkmorri]

I have been very pleased with the Wedgetail electronic ignition system on my 1971 R75/5. I also have one on my 1981 R65 and it really did the trick when my bean can failed. Easy to install, easy to set the timing. Very reliable.