Vintage Dirt Bike Q & A

Hi there cats & kittens,

My ignition on my 83 CR250 is going to need replaced. Weak spark. Instead of trying to replace with Honda parts I was wondering about the PVL that is available for the 83 CR250.

I have not used a PVL before. Any user comments out there? Is it worth the money? Stay with NOS parts? Give me some direction please!

Regards,

Stan
WV

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83 CR250
83 CR480
87 YZ250
88 CR250
74 TY250
07 YZ250
83 RM250 on the resto table
91 YZ250 with an Ohlins 360 kit in resto que
83 CR125 in resto que

Personally I think the OE Honda electricals are good stuff. Other than being newer, the PVL doesn't offer much
of an advantage (if any) over the stock ignition. Both are CDI, both are set and forget. I guess it depends on
what needs to be replaced on your stocker as to how you should proceed.

If you have done the tests and have a bad CDI or stator coils, you may as well go with the PVL because replacing
either of those parts (assuming you can even find them), will probably cost more than a whole PVL ignition. If it's
something like the coil or ignition lead, I would replace them with OE or aftermarket parts and stay with the stock
setup.

dogger

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1973 CR250M
1979 CR250R
1993 CR250R
2008 CR500R
2009 CR250R

Most ignition failures in modern systems are due to stator coils going bad. It makes sense since they are stuck inside the engine cover and can get quite hot when running. Is Ricky Stator still in business? I've had them rewind stators for me in the past, and they are much cheaper than oem. I never could tell any difference in their lifespan nor performance. Of course, there is always used stuff too, and Brendan at http://www.bikeboneyard.com seems to do a pretty good at that. Rolling the dice with ebay is always fun too, if you can put up with a bad part and no refund every now and then.

There will always be more replacement parts availabe with oem ignitions. I'd hate to try to find a deal on a replacement stator for an aftermarket ignition 15 years from now. The rest of most CR's will die before their ignitions will, so they will be sitting at the junk yard waiting for you.