Am now trying to check the points in the beancan - really hard to see in there or get a feeler guage in.Should I remove the outrigger bearing plate? I ran the bike with the cover off & couldn't see any big spark between the points, maybe daylight makes it tough..Anyone have any words of wisdom on this? Thanks in advance,Bill p.s. also timing?
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It's not at all easy to check the points with the bean can in place. The way I look at it is this: If you adjust the points then you have changed the timing and are going to have to set it again anyway so what's to lose by removing the bean can and then you can adjust the points on the bench where you can see what you are doing. Even then it's not so easy with the outrigger bearing plate in place but it is doable if you have feelers that taper towards the end. If you remove the plate to set the points be aware the gap can change by a couple of thou when you put the plate back on so you have to allow for that. While the bean can's out put a drop of thin oil on the outrigger bearing bush. The points gap is not ultra critical. I aim for 18 thou which is the middle of the 16 to 20 thou spec.
With the bean can back in place. Setting the timing is easy with an ohm meter or buzzer connected between the points spade connector and earth. With the plugs out I turn the engine over very slowly with an Allen key in the rotor bolt and watch for the static timing S mark to line up with the notch in the timing window. The points should just be opening. Rotate the engine another 360 deg to check the other cylinder. If there is a significant difference between cylinders (unusual with a bean can unless the outrigger plate is a sloppy fit) you can sometimes correct it by re-positioning the outrigger plate.
I can set the timing extremely accurately using this static method but you should also check maximum advance at 3000 rpm + with a strobe lamp because that's what's really important. Having found from experience that on my bike the the maximum advance is always spot on with the strobe I no longer worry about it and mostly rely only on static timing.
However you do the timing avoid parallax error by sighting as low down as possible just above the carbs. I made up a little jig with a pointer that fits into the timing hole but readily admit that it's a bit sad an excessive. I was aiming to achieve very accurate and repeatable settings when trying to eliminate pinging.
If it's any help when judging the accuracy of the setting the distance between two adjacent teeth on the flywheel is 3.36 Deg.
