Serious Ignition Help Needed

[admiral_spaceship]

Today as I was working on my never ending 79 gl1000 project, I noticed a black box zip-tied high up on the frame of the bike on the right side (almost where the neck is). The box is labeled, Martek Industries, Santa Cruz Ca. The box has 4 wires coming from it, 1 black, 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 green. I have seen these wires before when doing work, but could never figure out where they were suppose to go. Only the black on was hooked up into the wiring harness on the right side, near the rear cover.

After looking online, I found that this is some type of aftermarket ignition device. Does anyone else have any information about these? I dont know what this thing does, where to hook it up, or even if its good or bad to have this instead of the original device it replaced.

What to do?

[admiral_spaceship]

CORRECTION: Box actually says Martek Products Inc. Santa Ana, Calif.

Along with the four colored wires, there is another set of 4 of the same color which run into a plastic wiring connector.

[Alley Kat]

Quick Google threw this up which says what goes where - assuming its correct; kind of odd use of colours but here it is:
http://www.goldwingfacts.com/forums/forum1/16808.html

Although if only one wire is actually hooked, and the cable tieing it there, sounds a bit temporary. Maybe someone was halfway through replacing the points or something. Looks easy enough to hook up.

If it turns out dead though, Dyna S is good and less complex - no black box needed.

[admiral_spaceship]

Quick Google threw this up which says what goes where - assuming its correct; kind of odd use of colours but here it is:
http://www.goldwingfacts.com/forums/forum1/16808.html

Although if only one wire is actually hooked, and the cable tieing it there, sounds a bit temporary. Maybe someone was halfway through replacing the points or something. Looks easy enough to hook up.

If it turns out dead though, Dyna S is good and less complex - no black box needed.

Thanks for the info. I read it, although im not sure i understand it. So with this martek unit, am I suppose to be running an electronic setup? I have regular points in there now....

[heraldhamster]

if you have regular points and want stay with them, lemme know. I'd take the Martek box off your hands.

I found the module under the points cover (it's loaned out at the moment to a member) in my spare engine, and we could use the "black box" for experimentation.

thanks,
...jm.

[Alley Kat]

Does look like someone kind of got halfway through installing, and left it. Suppose there's a chance it could be using the points as a trigger, but usually elec ignitions have a unit that replaces them; they have optical or magnetic choppers instead of the points.

[Whiskerfish]

The Early Marteks and the early Dyna's both had external brain boxes.

I would suspect that it was upgraded then it failed and the bike was reverted to points. You might want to double check your ballast resistor to make sure the correct one is in there.

[Cookie]

That would be my guess too. A lot of the early electronic ignitions had the tow back feature.

[admiral_spaceship]

The Early Marteks and the early Dyna's both had external brain boxes.

I would suspect that it was upgraded then it failed and the bike was reverted to points. You might want to double check your ballast resistor to make sure the correct one is in there.

Yeah at some point it must have been converted back, as the P.O. told me it needed new points. Ill check the ballast resistor, and find out what that does;)

AH HA! I DO HAVE ONE OF THOSE BALLASTS! nice. Now to read Randakks post about how to test them.

So the last final question: If my ballast resistor is fine, then i dont need the martek unit? I just want to be extra sure, as I am a first time rebuilder....dont want to get rid of this thing then have to buy a new one.

[Cookie]

If you have points, the condenser, a ballast, and there is a lot of leeway on ballast values (you can trade speed of point wear for hotter spark) and good wiring you have all you need to run.
Electronic ignition is nice in many ways but when it's dead there is usually no on the road fix other than converting back to points.
Half an electronic ignition is pretty useless even to a fruit loop like me that makes them for fun.

[alwing17]

The Early Marteks and the early Dyna's both had external brain boxes.

I would suspect that it was upgraded then it failed and the bike was reverted to points. You might want to double check your ballast resistor to make sure the correct one is in there.

A lot of those old Martek ignitions failed...That's why they are out of buisness. I can say I have had a Dyna S system fail on me...Drove me crazy for about an hour,until I put the points back in and ran fine.

[heraldhamster]

yeah, I was having some problems with the '78 faltering & hesitating... swapped out the points for the Dyna-S off the '79. WOW! whatta difference. I might hang with this just for now & take the time to clean up my points. I'm sure they're either pitted, gapped all wrong or crapped out altogether. yeah, I used 1000 grit sandpaper on 'em last time. I admit it. I cleaned 'em real good tho'.

so I guesstimated the timing set point w/the Dyna & she scares me going up the on-ramps. it's still a little off, retarded I think, I'll static time it on Monday.

but NONE of my GLs has ever run this well or this powerful/fast. can't wait to get the newly rebuilt carbs on her & see what happens.

[Cookie]

Hammie,

If you get a chance to read the original instructions for the single carb kit that was most available for wings( I have one and still forget the name) they found under dyno testing that early wings like more advance than stock.
I'd record where you are now before changing it. If she is fast you may just be doing better than stock, which I think is somewhat lame by any standards.
Mind you this is from a fool that is currently turning a 4,000 RPM Chang at 6,000 in traffic and I have it to the point I am mildly concerned it can turn until it blows. (with just a few simple hot rod mods)

[admiral_spaceship]

but NONE of my GLs has ever run this well or this powerful/fast. can't wait to get the newly rebuilt carbs on her & see what happens.

Thats what started all this for me. I noticed the martek whilst removing the carbs for the nice new Randakk rebuild kit i just bought. Hahaha, I blame Randakk.

Herald Hamster, I am going to research the unit a bit more. I will prob end up getting rid of it after I figure out how things are set up. Ill send you a pm if I part with it. Sounds like you are doing some ignition research over there that could be interesting to everyone.

BTW - Seems like I may have stumbled on some official Martek diagrams, etc. They are here:

http://www.oldrice.com/Martek.html


And it seems I have one similar (at least visually) to the one in figure 5 here:

http://www.650motorcycles.com/Martek.html

I imagine the martek died, and instead of removing the entire thing, one of the PO's must have just cut off the part which replaces the points. That would explain why all the wires were just hanging except the power.

[Alley Kat]

You'll have a ballast whatever ignition you have, so it's presence has no bearing on the Martek.
The Martek is definitely redundant if only one wire is hooked. If it failed and they went back to points, makes you wonder why they left it in place and one wire hooked, slightly odd. If there's chopped wires hanging out of the Martek, just check they're terminated properly / there's no live outputs waving around. If you remove the box, remove or terminate that black wire going into it, that's a 12v live if the colours are as per that guys post.