For those that don't know, in most post 1981 BMW airheads, instead of points you have a hall effect device that triggers your ignition. The clever bit of electronics that does this is a Honeywell Systems 2AV54 vane signal Hall Effect device.
Honeywell stopped making them nearly 10 years ago and the supply of genuine parts has all but dried up. Some inventory hoarders still have them at upwards of US$50 each in some cases.
Anyway, at some point the 2AV54 will fail and the alternatives to date have been to convert to a completely different ignition system (not always a bad thing if it eliminates the mechanical advance/retard) Rebuild with a genuine replacement 2AV54 (sometimes salvaged from a ignition distributor bought at a car wrecker) or replace with a near equivalent - the usually used one is a Siemens HKZ101 which is electrically identical to the Honeywell device but nowhere near as robustly packaged and, most annoyingly, is not equipped with high temperature electrical leads.
To date the HKZ device has been the best of a bad lot of alternatives, they have amassed a reasonable reputation for reliability, one advantage they have over the honeywell device is that they are mounted by bolting and not by cold formed rivet.
Recently I was searching Chinese manufacturers seekign a cheaper source of HKZ devices (I have been paying around $AU20 each for them locally) when I came across a Chinese manufacturer claiming to be making licensed copies of the 2AV54, at $US20 I reckoned it was worth a punt and bought one to try.
It arrived, I tested it and it worked perfectly so this weekend I will fit it to a dead beancan I have courtesy of another member of this forum and will run it for a while.
But, not the big news, I went back to his site this morning and the price has dropped somewhat to around $US5.00 each on a ten part buy.
At that price I think I will buy a few more in case I ever need another...
http://hgme.en.seekic.com/product/integrated_circuits_ics/2av54_Honeywell____2AV54.html
