A customer sent me a video of what his machinist did to reinforce his timing cover mounted Joe Hunt magneto. I sell these mags and I am very impressed with what this gifted craftsman accomplished. Look at his hand drawings in the background. You don't see much of this old school skill anymore.






Hobot - thanks for the video embedding tip

From the post reply edit panel tag video to get the icon showing in post then grab the URL of the youtube video and paste inside the video icon. Like making jewelry.

deleted dual posting accident.

very nice - thx for sharing!

Nice work , no question about it , but why ?
What is the adavantage over , say , a Trispark or Pazon ?
Also , seems vunerable , sticking out like that ..

ludwig wrote:Nice work , no question about it , but why ? .

To help their economy - Made in Greece, you know Olives, Sardines, Magneto Adapters.....

Mick

ludwig wrote:Nice work , no question about it , but why ?
What is the adavantage over , say , a Trispark or Pazon ?
Also , seems vunerable , sticking out like that ..

No battery with an mag.

swooshdave wrote:No battery with an mag.

Yeah but keep your alternator or your lights will be up and down with the rpm's like as if on a dimmer. So now you've just added the weight of the mag in exchange for the battery.

Who wants a $700.00 wart sticking out to the curb like that. What's involved in mounting it in the lucas magneto position behind the barrels aside from needing the pre 71 dual timing chain and gears. ie: what would be involved in mounting a Joe Hunt where the old distributor is on a 71 Commando?

magnetos are cool !( well maybe more so on a preunit triumph or BSA) - i like them if for nothing more than if your charging system fails you can still get home, though i have to admit the joe hunts hanging off the timing cover are a bit industrial looking

I have atlas cases so I didn't have to go through all that. Fits nicely behind the cylinders.

Commandos changed that and so you see mags on the timing cover.

Hunt mags are reliable. Lucas mags are not, and electronic ignitions have a reputation of failing (and batteries suck). Its great to be able to lose the battery and never buy one again & again (batteries & elect ign cost more than a mag in the long run).

jseng1 wrote:I have atlas cases so I didn't have to go through all that. Fits nicely behind the cylinders.

Commandos changed that and so you see mags on the timing cover.

Hunt mags are reliable. Lucas mags are not, and electronic ignitions have a reputation of failing (and batteries suck). Its great to be able to lose the battery and never buy one again & again (batteries cost more than a mag in the long run).

i think its a common misconception about lucas mags - yes after 50 years they are questionable, but I've got 2 rebuilt (or essentially remachined) ones that are trouble free w/ over 5K on one and at least 10K on the other - if you can find someone who really knows what they are doing (!!)they are very reliable, not to take away from the joe hunts as they are no doubt very nice too (and about 2x the cost of rebuilding a lucas

Yes - some have good luck with lucas mags. I did not. I spent a lot of time & $ rebuilding, rewinds, condensers, everything. For me they were nothing but trouble when you wanted RPM or easy starts. But the Joe Hunt has been wonderful. Would rather have something pointless but they aren't available.

Mag. Start typical is damp engine & low throttle posn. To damp ( saturated )& it'll flood plugs .
The K2FC has a greater spark for start up than the standard one .
Lucas Mags pre 56 had smaller input shaft , that shears . So for a Snappy Runner , a 56 ' Big Bearing ' Mag. is nessesary .
The Old SR II mags got around all that . The SR4 is a tractor Mag .


The HUNT mag is similar to the SR Lucas , Raceing Magneto ( AJS Porcipine / 10.000 rpm + , & G 45 Matchless Twin )
Being NEW it wouldnt be suject to fretted bindings and other ills plaugeing the Lucas Mags .
Noteably , Aircraft run Magneto's , as its a integrated and reliable system .
Also , you can hook the Alternator direct to the Lighting System . No regulator / rectifier / zener diode ,
though maybe a current limiter could be of use. You get REAL GOOD headlamp full rpms in top , cuts through fog like
you wouldnt believe.Startings straightforward , if you follow the correct drill , cold . No Problem warm .
Usually just push the cylinders through , cold . To Prime . Kicking through will spark off the mixture .
So two compressions , luke warm ,. Four with the carbs wet , if its Freezeing . Ka Pow , running . Real Grunty off the Line , too . Bit like a 2MC capacitor , Key ' off ' untill the time is right , etc .

Never would have had these problems , if we'd stuck to Horses .

Hi All

I ran a Joe Hunt maggie that hung off the side of my 82 Triumph Thunderbird for over 9 years and 250,000 ks and never had any problems with it, first kick every time, so as soon as I found out they made one for the Commando motor I couldn't wait to save up for one, I have been running it on my 850 for over 18 months now and had a slide down the road on the maggie side, (hard front tyre and faulty orginal front brake), the Joe Hunt sirvived with just torn plug leads and damage maggie cover (had a spare cover) and a frachtured left arm and broken thump.

The Joe Hunt is easy to set up, easy to tune and runs great with 1 kick start every time, I have set all my timing marks on the inside of the maggie housing so when I need to do any maitenance on it I just pull it off the bike and work on the bench and just put it back on at my marks with out any resetting of the timing, so easy, I ride my Norton 6 days out of 7 and the best part I don't run or need a battery, I run a Sparx battery ellinantor to run my lights and any other power with out any problems and I do a bit of night riding, I also ride my Norton hard, it has a bit of motor work, new JS PWKs carbies and open exhausts the bike runs great at any revs, sound great.

I have owned my Norton for 36 years now, have run points, 3 sets of electronic ignistions and so far the Joe Hunt has been the best I have used so far, yes it does sit out the side a bit but that is the risk we all take when riding motorcycles, thing get damaged from crashes.

ashman wrote:Hi All

I ran a Joe Hunt maggie that hung off the side of my 82 Triumph Thunderbird for over 9 years and 250,000 ks and never had any problems with it, first kick every time, so as soon as I found out they made one for the Commando motor I couldn't wait to save up for one, I have been running it on my 850 for over 18 months now and had a slide down the road on the maggie side, (hard front tyre and faulty orginal front brake), the Joe Hunt sirvived with just torn plug leads and damage maggie cover (had a spare cover) and a frachtured left arm and broken thump.

The Joe Hunt is easy to set up, easy to tune and runs great with 1 kick start every time, I have set all my timing marks on the inside of the maggie housing so when I need to do any maitenance on it I just pull it off the bike and work on the bench and just put it back on at my marks with out any resetting of the timing, so easy, I ride my Norton 6 days out of 7 and the best part I don't run or need a battery, I run a Sparx battery ellinantor to run my lights and any other power with out any problems and I do a bit of night riding, I also ride my Norton hard, it has a bit of motor work, new JS PWKs carbies and open exhausts the bike runs great at any revs, sound great.

I have owned my Norton for 36 years now, have run points, 3 sets of electronic ignistions and so far the Joe Hunt has been the best I have used so far, yes it does sit out the side a bit but that is the risk we all take when riding motorcycles, thing get damaged from crashes.

and it matches the tank color!