Powerdynamo brings new ignition & light 
to your vintage motorcycle

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assembly instruction for system  70 51 599 00

Version 27.06.2008

 


IMPORTANT:

 Please do read those instructions fully before starting work on your bike or any modification on the supplied system. Also, please note the remarks on the information page for this system.
If you have no expertise for the installation have it done by an expert or at a specialist's workshop. Improper installation may damage the new system and your motorcycle.
Before you order a system, please check against the section "you should have received those parts" whether all parts wanted are in the kit. You might want to order a puller tool, light bulbs, fuse, horn, flasher unit etc.
Never use anything other than  a puller tool M27x1.25 to pull the new rotor again. In case of damage to the rotor as a result of use of other (unsuitable) tools and facilities, the warranty claim expires! 

If you have access to the Internet, see those instructions online. You get larger and better pictures by clicking onto them and possibly updated information. System list at http://www.powerdynamo.biz

 


Check packing
and rotor!

 The rotor is sensible to blows during transport. We therefore double pack the material (box inside box). Should the system have been despatched to you via a reseller and arrive not packed like this, please inform us.
Before assembly, please always check the magnets (try to push them aside with your fingers). After impact the glued in magnets might have broken loose, sticking to the rotor however by magnetic force, so that one does not notice right away. During run there would be considerable damage as a result.
Before putting the rotor to the engine, please make sure that its magnets have not collected metal objects such as small screws, nuts and washers. That equally would lead to severe damage.
You should have received those parts:
  • trigger unit / rotor unit
  • advance unit
  • AC/DC converter
  • twin ignition coil / ht-cable
  • incidentals

 
Preparation:

First check against the packing list for completenes of parts. 
Make sure your bike rests securely on her centre stand, preferably on an elevated work bench and that you have good access to the front of the engine. You will have to turn the front wheel from side to side for good access.
Disconnect your battery and take it out of the motorcycle for the time of work. Drain the petrol (gas) from the tank into a canister. Take care not to spill any petrol and refrain from smoking. Disconnect the tube running between the tanks sides under the frame tube. Take the petrol tank off the bike and put it to a secure place for the time of work at the bike.

Overview of assembly:

A electronic pick-up unit will be mounted onto the original distributor casing, of which the lower (aluminium) part will be used as a base. The camshaft will get a small rotor disc with 2 trigger elevations (noses). Outside the engine the twin ignition coil, the advance unit and the converter will be fitted.
Assembly:
 
Take the cover with the high tension cables and the rotor of the distributor unit as well as the plate with the points off.

The bowden cable for the advance regulation may stay for optical reasons, will however be of no effect.

Equally take out the upper 2 holder screws. They will be replaced by new ones which at the same time secure the base of the pick-up.
Place the new, pre-assembled rotor unit onto the cam shaft's end and fasten it there the same way the original distributor rotor was fixed (with the chuck piece).

That is a little fuzzy, but not of our invention. Complaints please to pre-war BMW engineers.
Place the pickup unit onto the distributor housing and fasten it there with the 2 supplied  hexagon socket head cap screw M5x40.

You have to insert one small washers 5 (one each side) between the pick-up module and the old distributor base the get over the embossed writing there evenly.
The new rotor disc should be in line (or about so, 1mm or 2 to the side will not matter) with the metal core of the pick-up.

The gap between the pick-up core and the surface of the elevated section (nose) of the rotor disc (any of the 2) has to be  0.4-0.5mm. You ajust that by loosening the pick-up screws a little and shift the part.

Do not forget the carefully tighten the 2 screws after that. Under vibrations it might shake loose and get destroyed by the rotor's noses.
Lastly timing has to be set. For this, take both spark plugs out and set the crank to top dead center (marked "OT"), that is the highest position the piston can get.

It does not matter in what cycle the engine is in, as you will get simultanious sparks on both cylinders every 360 crank degrees. The wasted spark near bottom dead center is harmless.

Hold the rotorcam with a flat spanner size 19 and open the hexagon socket head cap screw M5x40 a little with an hex wrench 6.
Ignition adjustment for all engines with an anti-clockwise turning camshaft.
Turn the disc now carefully so that the embossed marking aligns to the center of the pick-up module. (see picture left). In that position carefully tighten the screw. Make sure the spring washer is still in place to secure it.

You may change timing setting the embossed mark slightly differently. If you set it more to the anti-clockwise, that is into turning direction you get earlier ignition, if you set it against turning direction you get more retarded ignition.

Be carefull however, false settings may damage your engine.
Ignition adjustment for all engines with an clockwise turning camshaft (R51).
Ignition happens after the disc's protrusion passages the sensor. Because the system has to calculate the revolution speed by measuring the time of the protrusion passage. The ignition marking at the R51 has to be on the opposite side to the protrusion. Simplest practise by:
Transferring the marking at first to the front and then to the back side.

Turn the trigger disc upside down (the surface with the arrow shows now to the motor) - and you will have a clockwise turning disc.

Electrically it is both equally, but now you have the ignition marking on the right side.
At the R51 looks the position of the disc different to the above discribed engines.

By a minimal clockwise turning of the disc (turning direction of the engine) you will get earlier ignition. By anti-clockwise turning you get more retarded ignition.

Be carefull however, false settings may damage your engine.
With that, work on the engine is finished.

Remains to find a place for the external parts and fasten them conveniently. We know that this is easy to say and difficult to do, if you want to keep them as much out of sight as possible. The ignition coil might find a place under the tank or under the driver seat. (example here, nearer picture here).
Have a look at the advance unit (the black box). You will notice on the side the wires come out 2 small blue switches. They are used to activate the different advance curves inside the bow. We have preset it to the correct position for your BMW. Still, please check settings (as you should equally do after any work there, just in case you have accidentially changed them).

Switch 1 has to be at "ON" position whereas switch 2 was to face the figure 2 there (that is the "OFF" position. If not, the system will not function correctly.

Connect the parts as shown in wiring diagram 599.2:
Start with the converter:
There are 3 wire bundles at the black converter box. (You may tell the converter from the advance unit which is housed in an identical box by those 3 bundles. The advance unit has only 2.):
  • one bundle containing a red and a white wire with open ends
  • a second bundle with a 4-position male plug (only 3 used) containing a red, a white and a blue/white wire
  • a third bundle with a 4-position female plug (only 3 used) containing a green/red, a white and a blue/white wire
The bundle with the open-end-wires: Connect the white (earth) wire to the negative (minus) pole of the battery and the red wire (via a 5-Ampere-fuse) to the main switch at a terminal there that carries voltage when the switch is ON.
The bundle with the 4-position male plug ... ... connect to the fitting counterpart plug at the ignition coil. Make sure that red goes to red, white to white and blue/white to yellow.
The bundle with the 4-position female plug ... ... connect to the fitting counterpart plug of the advance unit. Make sure that blue/white goes to blue/white, white to white and red/green to red/white.
Remains the 2. bundle at the advance unit
(with the wires yellow, white, red/white): 		... get connected to the yellow and the white (ground) wire from the sensor.
To connect use the supplied plug housing and plugs. Make sure that yellow goes to yellow and white to white. The red/white wire remains unconnected.
This bundle with the 4- position female plug ...

Finally - and before installing the battery and before the first kickstart - please re-check carefully all connections and fitments against the wiring diagram. Please don't depend on the frame as the earth-connection. Varnish, oil and dirt prevent often a good contact!

The system will work with both 6 or 12 Volts (adapts automatically). It will however not work without battery!

Should something not work, please consult our trouble-shooting guide on our homepage. As a first step disconnect the blue wire from the coil and re-test.

 

Important safety and operating information

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 Safety first! Please observe the general health and safety regulations motor vehicle repair (MVR) as well as the safety information and obligations indicated by the manufacturer of your motorcycle.

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 Ignition systems generate high tension! With our material right up to 40.000 Volts! This may, if handled carelessly, not only be painful, but outrightly dangerous. Please do keep a safe distance to the electrode of your spark plug and open high tension cables. Should you need to test spark firing, hold the spark plug socket securely with some well insulating material and push it firmly to solid ground of the engine block.

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 After installation, please check tightness of all screws, even those preinstalled. If parts get loose during run, there will be inevitably damage to the material. We pre-assemble screws only loosely.

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 Give the freshly installed system a chance to work, before you start to check and test values, or even worse, before you apply changes thought to be sensible by you without having seen the system run.
Our parts have been checked before delivery. You will not be able to check much anyway. At any rate do refrain from measuring the electronic components (such as ignition coil, regulator and advance unit). You risk severe damage to the inner electronics there. You will not get any sensible results from the operation anyway. Bear in mind that also your carburettor, your spark plugs and spark plug sockets (even if completely new) might be the reason for malfunction. The general experience with our systems is that the carburettor will have to be re-adjusted to lower settings. Should the system not start after assembly, first disconnect the blue cut-off wire directly at the ignition coil (or in some cases advance unit) to eliminate any malfunction in the cut-off circuitry. Check ground connections carefully.

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The spark of classic, points based ignition systems has with about 10.000 Volts only little energy and looks therefore yellow and bulky (hence well visible). The spark from our system is a high energy spark with up to 40.000 Volts and therefore very sharp (needle thin focused) in form and blue in colour, which makes it not so well visible. Furthermore you get spark only at kickstart operated revolutions and not already by pressing the kicklever down with your hand (as you might do with battery based ignitions).

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 Systems using a twin outlet ignition coils have a few percularities. Please observe that during tests on one side, the other has either to be connected to an fitted spark plug or securely earthed. Otherwise there will be no spark on either side.

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Never do electric welding on the bike without completely disconnecting all electronics.

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 Electronics are very sensitive to wrong polarity. After work on the system, do check correct polarity of the battery and the regulator. Wrong polarity creates short circuits and will destroy the regulator, the ignition coil and the advance unit. As a rule, wiring will always be colour to colour. Instances, where colour changes between wires are expressly mentioned in our instructions.

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 When you handle the new rotor, take care not to damage its magnets. Refrain from direct blows to the circumference of the rotor. For transport never put the rotor over the stator. Observe our information relative to transport of the material.

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 Do not use spark plug sockets with a resistance of more than 5kOhm. Better use 1 or 2kOhm ones. Bear in mind that spark plug sockets do age and thereby increase their internal resistance. Should an engine start up only when cold, a defective spark plug socket and/or spark plug is very probably the cause. In case of problems check high tension cables too. Never use carbon fibre HT-cables, never use so called "hot wires", never use resistor spark plugs.

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 It is a good idea to cover the rotor in a thin layer of oil to reduce the risk of corrosion.

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 Never use a claw puller or a hammer to disengage the rotor. Its magnets might become loose in the event. We offer a special puller screw for disengaging the new rotor again (see assembly instruction)!

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 Should the motorcycle not be in use for some longer period, please disconnect the battery (so existing) to prevent current bleeding through the diodes of the regulator. Though, even a disconnected battery will empty itself after a while.

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 Please do observe those remarks, but at the same time, be not afraid of installation. Remember, before you, thousands of other customers have successfully installed the system.
Enjoy driving your bike with its new electric heart!