Scooterotica

Has anyone had any experience with the Motoplat race ignition? The sort of thing that occasionally found it's way onto the race track (I recall Webster and others using them in the 1980's).

I'm interested to know about whether it used a CDI box like the ducati electronic ignition.

Any info or pictures would be useful.

Thanks

we may well have one soon for sale

I have now done what I should have done in the first place, and found loads of stuff on Google images. Mind you, that has raised as many questions as answers......

At least there are a couple of wiring diagrams, which is what I was after.

Hooray for tinternet

Ive got one on my sprinter

What you looking into with this Knowledge?

ive got one dead simple 2 wires into a coil

I used a motoplat ignition at Cadwell, and in France last year.

As said.... dead simple ..... two wires into a motoplat coil.

You need decent engines revs when bump starting to get them running! (or electric rollers!) and a good earth lead.

Knowledge....
'Ive got one on my sprinter'

So have I + Rev Counter that came with it.
You were able to get Auto Advance/Retard boxes for them as well.

Pity they went t*ts up.

Mine's been mega reliable, even through 'twisted crank events!'

Ken

drunkmunkey6969 wrote:What you looking into with this Knowledge?

Well I was intrigued by the motoplat rev counter, as it looks like a krober item. So I thought I ought to check out the motoplat ignition system to see how compatible everything is with Ducatis based items.

In my search, I found a guy trading as Bradford Ignitions. His specialist subject is motorplat ignitions so I called him, in Spain. He's been living there for many years and he reckons he can fix any motorplat ignition system, even the sealed one. We chatted for about 20 minutes and he told me he also has a lot of experience of Ducati based systems similar to Lambretta and Vespa, although he hasn't tried to exploit this market.

He says he has no problems with the CDI units he stocks, or the pick-ups or the voltage regulators. I suggested he put some on ebay.uk to test the water for the scooter market. If he can get good stocks of these, why do many UK scooter dealers sell rubbish items?

He can also re-wind individual coils to give either a better spark (he claims better response in the mid-range on certain trials bikes with a re-wound primary coil) and could do the same to give decent lights. I asked why our voltage regulators often only put out 10volts, and he stated that they needed to put out about 30volts from the stator to get 12volts out of the other side of the regulator. I doubt if many stators put out 20volts, but just think how much better your lights would be if they got a reliable 12volts.

Meanwhile, I am sure he is familiar with the advance and retard boxes fitted with the motoplat race ignitions. I know Webster used these in the 80's.

He's an interesting guy and was no bullsh!tter. He could be quite a discovery.

I assume that when he states "the stator must output 30v" he is measuring it unloaded ,ie direct from the stator without it being connected to the reg. I believe even Indian ones are capable of this.