Joe Hunt Magneto for Norton

Curious if any of you have experience with the "Joe Hunt magneto" on your bike.

http://www.huntmagnetos.com/store/Magne ... html?id=80

I can see advantages, but one big disadvantage is in a crash --- if you go down on the right side, it will be very expensive.

But does it make it easier to start? Especially with the kick starter?
And there are points inside a magneto, so they need adjustment now and then, no? So aside from eliminating the ignition coil and providing an ignition system independent of the battery, what is the real advantage?

--Scott
1975 Norton Commando Mk III Roadster

If you search ebay for "Norton Commando" right now you'll find, in one of the listings, pictures of Commando with JH magneto fitted. It looks kind of ridiculous hanging off the right side of the timing chest like that, but it is possible to tuck it away behind the cylinders, mounted to the inside/rear of the timing chest were it looks just fine. I have one mounted like that, but having "inherited" it I've no idea what hoops you need to jump through to make it work.
Functionally I cannot imagine the magneto has any real advantages. It's nice, on a race bike to be able to dispose of the entire electrical system, but unless it's part of a styling exercise I can't see much point in putting one on a road bike.

Cheers! ~ Gary

Check with ashman he has done the conversion and swears by his joe hunt magneto- rides his bike everyday. Cj

Jim Schmidt lists one that is mounted behind the cylinders.

http://www.jsmotorsport.com/products.asp

I used one on the 750 Commando engine in my AHRMA racer for a while. It's very simple and reliable, and worked fine. I only took it off because it was too vulnerable to crash damage. This is a picture of it before I converted it to a race bike.




Ken

Hi

I have been running my 850 Norton with a new Joe Hunt maggie for 1 year now and won't ever go back to points or elec ignition, I run all my power off my alternator through a Sparx battery elimanator so no need for a battery, I have had 2 slow speed crashes on the maggie side because of faulty front brakes and it survived each crash, they are very tuff, they are so easy to set up and I have marked all my timing marks on the outside of the mounting plate so if i want to service the maggie I can pull it off and put it back on wth all the marks lining up so I don't have to retime it, as for the points in the maggie they will last for years without touching them, if you have a 750 Norton that has the maggie mount plate behine the cylinders is the go but the 850s don't have it, as for starting it throws out such a big spark it will start first time every time if your carbies are set right,

I ran a Joe Hunt on my 82 Truimph Thunderbird for 9 years and never had any problems with it and it done over 250,000 Ks
before I sold it, if you look at the story 1 year after the rebuild on this form you can see a pic of my bike with the Joe Hunt on, yes they are expencive but well worth the money $765 from Lowbrows Customs a little bit cheaper than Joe Hunt sells them for, as for part I just order through Joe Hunt and they send them straight away less than 7 days to Austratia.

Ashley

Cant beat a Mag . Lucky 69 Case users , it fits where its supposed to . Behind the Cylinders .

' A Bit ' of stuffing around , to set up 2A cases to suit original Mag Posn .

Dang points'r the first thing to knock a hole in the ground on the right anyway.
Brakeing on Gravle , train to hit BACK brake FIRST . Lead with REAR brake .

A good reason to get it set up spot on so theres a bit of feed back .

Heard of SR2 Lucas wound up on bench past 10.000 throwing a TWO INCH spark .

Should Be Sufficent . :wink:

Love the newstyle Hunt magneto, fewer problems and easy starting. I have some upgrade details to go with these.

I run an Joe Hunt Magneto that is probably 35-40 years old on my race bike, works excellent. Steve Maney cases were modified and mag is mounted behind cylinders, driven from inside timing chest.
I had a curious problem with it last year that I had trouble sorting until we finally figured out that the shaft that drove it had actually broken (but would sometimes hook up and work...)
Herb ran the race bike on the dyno back to back comparing the power output of electronic ignition vs the mag with points- you do lose about 1 1/2 to 2 HP running the mag (on a 70 HP race motor) but I love the convenience of not having to constantly recharge the battery when running a total loss system. There is no battery. Of course the ideal set up would be an electronic magneto...

Doug MacRae said:

Of course the ideal set up would be an electronic magneto...

Click to expand...

Funny you should mention that, Doug. After I removed the Hunt mag I ran a set of fixed advance Bendix points in a ball bearing breaker plate with a total loss ignition system. That worked well, but it did require a battery and occasional points adjustment. Eventually, I replaced that with an ARD electronic mag, and never looked back. I'm still running one of the last generation ARD mags that's only slightly larger than the stock points cover. I would have bought more of them if I could have talked Alan into making more. Did you and Herb ever consider using one?

Ken

I certainly like the idea of the ARD electronic magneto. I would certainly consider running an electronic mag if I knew how to find one- and have spares available.
It's nice and light too- if you held the magnet part of the old school Joe Hunt magneto in your hand, it is amazing how heavy it is.

Unfortunately the ARD electronic mag is no longer available.

But the new Joe Hunts have lighter & stronger rare earth magnets now and the spark is fat at low RPM meaning your bike will start half way through the kicstart stroke. They do have points which require occasional replacing. You can mount the mag in back of the cylinders if you can find Atlas cases or just the timingside Atlas case 1/2 and match it to a Maney case, or have Maney make cases for the mag. If anyone has a nice closeup pic of a Hunt mag mounted in front I would like one for my web page.

Behind the cylinder setup below.