What am I looking at?

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dynodave said:
FWIW
In the USA I have repaired the boxes. But as the rita is quite good the # needing repair is low.

I bought out Micheal Moore when the AB11 went out of production and still have over 55 systems...but no commando ones for sale.

What am I looking at?

I can spin test AAU/mechanical points, Rita, Boyer(as seen above), for twins and triples and test coils :)
I did a sparx once a long time ago.
I could probably do the trisparks and pazon too
Click to expand...
Hi David
When you open the box for repair what typically gets replaced. Is it the power transistors as LAB gtiller mentioned? You may recall I still have my RITA that sparks, but not working properly. I’m using a TriSpark now, but would love to have a working RITA for when the TriSpark dies.
 
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baz said:
Try seeing if the plugs spark when you click the ignition on and off
If it does,then take a look at pickup wires
If it doesn't then do all the usual checks,power and earth's etc
Also make sure the battery has at least 12 volts
Click to expand...
No spark when I click the ignition on and off. Tried connecting the two pick up wires, still no spark. Battery is brand spanking new and fully charged. Not quite sure how to measure the voltage on the lucas amplifier. I am looking at 6 wires coming out of the unit.
 
Kjell said:
No spark when I click the ignition on and off. Tried connecting the two pick up wires, still no spark. Battery is brand spanking new and fully charged. Not quite sure how to measure the voltage on the lucas amplifier. I am looking at 6 wires coming out of the unit.
Click to expand...
Is it an AB5? antique (junk)

AB11 6 wires?
white orange stripe trigger coil
White purple stripe trigger coil

white yellow 12.8 +
white black coil drive
Black 12.8 -
 
The AB5 was an antique 30 years ago, the AB11 became an antique in around 2004. I can fix the AB11 but unless you are lucky, you will have to pay super big money to get components to fix the AB5.
The semiconductor industry does NOT readily support those old products and speculators have bought up vintage transistors to sell for outrageous prices.
I refuse to spend that kind of money when a new system is only 300-400 dollars. For 15 years at my professional job our company paid ransom for no longer made NOS parts hoarded by "gray" market speculators.
 
It seems putting AB 11 module in a AB 5 box seems OK .
I doubt I would bother... does the "heat sink" really work?
Solder the wires after prep? make/attach 2 connector harnesses ?
yes can be done, but I'm not going to do it...fine if you work for free!:rolleyes:
This is what gets me...
" Power consumption is much lower compared to the Rita system as we use modern, efficient electronic components. "
Efficient does not enter into the equation, a lucas rita coil drive duty cycle is 98%.
It sounds like a circuit board of a totally new design (using SMD components) unlike the original Rita is what is being sold... if the "power consumption is much lower"
I would doubt they can claim it is really a Lucas Rita conceptually. It's just a board that "fits".
 
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dynodave said:
It seems putting AB 11 module in a AB 5 box seems OK .
I doubt I would bother... does the "heat sink" really work?
Solder the wires after prep? make/attach 2 connector harnesses ?
yes can be done, but I'm not going to do it...fine if you work for free!:rolleyes:
This is what gets me...
" Power consumption is much lower compared to the Rita system as we use modern, efficient electronic components. "
Efficient does not enter into the equation, a lucas rita coil drive duty cycle is 98%.
It sounds like a circuit board of a totally new design (using SMD components) unlike the original Rita is what is being sold... if the "power consumption is much lower"
I would doubt they can claim it is really a Lucas Rita conceptually. It's just a board that "fits".
Click to expand...
I think the OP just wants to get his bike running and potentially has no preconceptions about the merits of the AB5 vs. the AB11 or the Boyer, Trispark etc. It's just what the bike came with and folks here are trying to help him (or her).

I think one of the major bugbears of the RITA was it's high power consumption, so a new circuit board with modern components consuming less power must be an improvement surely?

If you were in the same situation as the OP would you try to troubleshoot or bin it? and if so which system would you fit?

Cheers,

cliffa.
 
cliffa said:
I think the OP just wants to get his bike running and potentially has no preconceptions about the merits of the AB5 vs. the AB11 or the Boyer, Trispark etc. It's just what the bike came with and folks here are trying to help him (or her).

I think one of the major bugbears of the RITA was it's high power consumption, so a new circuit board with modern components consuming less power must be an improvement surely?

If you were in the same situation as the OP would you try to troubleshoot or bin it? and if so which system would you fit?

Cheers,

cliffa.
Click to expand...
He does not say what bike he has?
otherwise:
Blue box boyer analog it's cheap and fairly good.
20 minutes ---in and running
not sensitive to charging system or EM interferance to a computer chip.

In around 2004 I had bought all the US Rita inventory
Met with John Carpenter discussing the reintroduction of the rita.
I had redone the aluminum box design, had sourced all the components for the first batch of 100.
My plan was for a new copy of the analog system to be followed by a pc progamable tuneable like the trispark firebox pro. ($650)???
I could not see keeping the 98% coil drive duty cycle when an energy efficient short dwell system was the future.
As I can still see an incredibly small number of people even understand spark generation or how an ignition curve affect the engine...no one would buy it as no one could use it.
I lost interest.
 
dynodave said:
It seems putting AB 11 module in a AB 5 box seems OK .
I doubt I would bother... does the "heat sink" really work?
Solder the wires after prep? make/attach 2 connector harnesses ?
yes can be done, but I'm not going to do it...fine if you work for free!:rolleyes:
This is what gets me...
" Power consumption is much lower compared to the Rita system as we use modern, efficient electronic components. "
Efficient does not enter into the equation, a lucas rita coil drive duty cycle is 98%.
It sounds like a circuit board of a totally new design (using SMD components) unlike the original Rita is what is being sold... if the "power consumption is much lower"
I would doubt they can claim it is really a Lucas Rita conceptually. It's just a board that "fits".
Click to expand...
Sorry to hijack the thread, but I'm the proud owner of 2 Rita systems. Unfortunately I'm away from the bikes (up in the summer house!), so I'm unable to check which type they are. The Trident has a system from around 1979 or so, so probably a AB5, while the Ducati is from the mid-90's, so possibly AB11.
The Trident runs 3 x 4V coils, the Ducati 2 x 6V. Both seem to be working ok, though the Ducati is always marginal with the "mighty" (not!) 150W charging system.

What's your opinion of these systems? There was an earlier comment saying that the Rita is a great system, but these days, there's a heap of different types on the market.
 
Bit puzzled as you can get a Pazon SureFire for fairly small money depending on where you live I suppose. Maybe the
Boyer now is just as good and just as affordable along with other systems I know naught about.
 
Boyer, under pressure from the Pazon not being so voltage sensitive, introduced the Boyer MK4, so its the Boyer MK3 that has the issues with advanced timing from low battery voltage. The MK4 does not but still has its foibles like the wires to the stator being vibration sensitive, the Pazon and its foible of the extended wake up sequence which makes it unsuitable for high compression singles.
 
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