650SS magneto or electronic ignition

Glen,
I remember you noting that Herb Becker did some head work on your bike. He does great work. Anyway, which carbs are you running? Jetting if Concentrics? Did you leave the sleeve in the intake tract? Mine has been tough to keep a good idle. New Premier 30mm carbs, Pazon currently installed. Std. engine spec
Bill

elefantrider said:

Nice. I'd be interested to see how you attached it.

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Hi should be in my rebuild of the my 650ss, I am a mech engineer, plus a machinist, all worked but maybe should have made a bit more adjustment on the trigger plate, have-not had a look in the primary case since doing the rebuild, but still starting very easy and running nicely, I have worked out a sequence for starting, bring up to compression, turn key on, one good kick and starts first time every time, so long as petrol is turned on, and no one is watching, ok forgot to say why I leave the ignition off, if I turn it on and bring it up to compression I end up with a sore knee/foot from the kick back.
But I am about to strip down the engine and rebalance the crankshaft, or most likely go with Jims Smits long rods and piston and balance from there, makes sense to me.
Only issues I have had with spark/plugs is the rider , he keeps forgetting which way the lever goes on fuel enrichment, just seems back the front, guess that comes with age.
Burgs

milfordite said:

Glen,
I remember you noting that Herb Becker did some head work on your bike. He does great work. Anyway, which carbs are you running? Jetting if Concentrics? Did you leave the sleeve in the intake tract? Mine has been tough to keep a good idle. New Premier 30mm carbs, Pazon currently installed. Std. engine spec
Bill

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The carbs are the original 30mm Concentrics which were resleeved by Bruce Chessell at the time of restoration.
Herb Becker bought my 650ss from a breaker yard for $1000 then donated it to the Ontario Vintage Motorcycle Club, of which he is a member.
The engine had a conrod thru one case half. The previous own left the bike outside under a damp tarp all winter then started the bike in the spring. The throttle stuck wide open and the revs went to the moon, hence the con rod problem.
Herb and the Ontario Vintage group did a wonderful no expense spared job of restoring the bike. A fellow named Terry Gower did most of the work. Terry has restored many Nortons and old BMWs. He does meticulous work. Herb ported and rebuilt the head. Terry did the rest of the engine. From the bills they replaced almost everything with new parts.
They raffled the bike off and made a ton of money so the expense of the rebuild was covered 3 times over.
I've done very little to it other than ride it and have fun with it! I always smile when I ride it because it seems like such a mighty mouse machine. It doesn't seem to understand that it's only a little 650! Maybe all 650 ss bikes are that way.

I don't know if those sleeves are still in place or not.
I'm also clueless about carb jetting, sorry!
It runs so well that I haven't messed with it at all, other than to fix the corroded ignition switch that was causing problems for the raffle winner.

Glen

That's funny, cause I got mine from a scrap yard as well!

Installed the mag that Doug Wood rebuilt for me, and it's really running well. Starts easily and holds a nice idle finally! Seems to run smoother as well. Once the rains stops I'll get it out for a run.

I absolutely love my 650ss with a mag 4 years an 4 winters of daily riding with nothing but total reliability have fun with yours bril bikes!

When I start back on my 1960 Manxman project bike (it was an ex-race bike) and the Lucas Magneto is the competition maggie, not sure it's any good but has spark when turning over by hand, if it did need rebuilding I wouldn't worry about it and just replace it with a 4 rare earth Joe Hunt that will fit behind the motor, you can run it with the auto advance but I wouldn't, no need to with the JH and the cost be near the same as getting the Lucas rebuilt, but with the JH you get a better spark, easier to work on and replace the capacitor (as its all under the front cover) when needed and more compact than the Lucas.

The only decent magneto is the rotating magnet type which usually has the condensor outside the housing. The Lucas SR magneto is used on industriual motors. It is better than any competition magneto from Lucas. But it does not look original. The SR can be made to fire 1, 2,or 4 cylinders. Magnetos used to be the bane of my existence. I have driven 200 Km to a race meeting, to have the magneto drop dead. You can get usually an old SR magneto from places which have farm machinery.

I once dropped a 650 Triumph onto the greasy road as I left traffic lights - when I picked it up, the magneto had died. The bump had killed it.