Joe hunt magneto

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A Joe Hunt magneto on a Commando ? The ones I have seen stick out like a sore thumb.
They may perform well, but look like crap, and totally spoils the look of a Commando.
 
Peter R said:
A Joe Hunt magneto on a Commando ? The ones I have seen stick out like a sore thumb.
They may perform well, but look like crap, and totally spoils the look of a Commando.
Click to expand...
Thats your opinion, I love my Joe Hunt maggie that sits out of the timming case, it looks shit hot, it runs nice and cool and I don't care what others say about it, it performs so good, has such a hot spark and is so much reliabler than any other set up that I have run on my Norton and I have owned the same bike for 36 years now, the best thing you don't need a big heavy battery, usualy the poeple that remark badly about the Joe Hunt maggie are the ones that have never had one on there bike, I have layed the Norton down 2 times now on the maggie side the first time, new tyres and a faulty front brake and the second time a car pulled out in front of me, the Joe hunt servived both times with only a crack cover.

I ran a Joe Hunt on the side of my 82 Triumph Thunderbird for 9 years and never had any problems with it at all in all those years, first kick every time and the Norton is the same.

Ashley
 
Fitting a Mag allows you to dispose of most of the electrical trash , & hook the Alternator direct to the headlamp . This improves the penetration in fog once over the ton .
 
ashman said:
Peter R said:
A Joe Hunt magneto on a Commando ? The ones I have seen stick out like a sore thumb.
They may perform well, but look like crap, and totally spoils the look of a Commando.
Click to expand...
Thats your opinion, I love my Joe Hunt maggie that sits out of the timming case, it looks shit hot, it runs nice and cool and I don't care what others say about it, it performs so good, has such a hot spark and is so much reliabler than any other set up that I have run on my Norton and I have owned the same bike for 36 years now, the best thing you don't need a big heavy battery, usualy the poeple that remark badly about the Joe Hunt maggie are the ones that have never had one on there bike, I have layed the Norton down 2 times now on the maggie side the first time, new tyres and a faulty front brake and the second time a car pulled out in front of me, the Joe hunt servived both times with only a crack cover.

I ran a Joe Hunt on the side of my 82 Triumph Thunderbird for 9 years and never had any problems with it at all in all those years, first kick every time and the Norton is the same.

Ashley
Click to expand...

I remember seeing them fitted 30 years ago, recently a wise old man told me the Joe Hunt Magneto has no provision for ignition advance. True? Or False?
 
My son is an aircraft mechanic, he works for a .org in the east that has a B24, B17, Mustang, and many other vintage planes, all with magnetos; he swears by their reliability and their performance. He and I agrue about the virtues of all solid state (my position) versus these electro-mechanical wonders. So , I claim that the solid state produces a more consistent, repatable spark, has less moving parts and puts out a hotter spark which doesn't trail off with RPM, he claims that a mag puts out an ever increasing spark with RPM, but acknowledges that the engines he works on rarely exceed 3000 RPM.

So does a mag do a better job of igniting the mixture than, say, a TriSpark with a 5 ohm dual fire Dyna coil, supplied with the juice from a Sprax high out put charging system??

Or

Is the mag just a period piece that allows the standard charging system to light the way at night or is it a real, respectible, performance piece that out shines electronics????

Wondering.

Bill.
 
If you look at the evolution of the aviation industry, Mag Ignition was the standard for the bulk of time. But in recent years there has been a switch to a redundant EI system. So I would say a Mag is cool and does work well. But a good EI system will also work well. Nowadays it comes down to preference. With a mag there are more parts to wear out, but with an EI there are lots of little electronic parts to fail. 6 of one half a dozen of another. Also to add to this, the aircraft EI systems also get used with EFI. Again removing another old technology.
 
concours said:
I remember seeing them fitted 30 years ago, recently a wise old man told me the Joe Hunt Magneto has no provision for ignition advance. True? Or False?
Click to expand...

Both. The Joe Hunt mag that fits on the back of the Atlas (or modified Commando) timing chest keeps the stock Atlas advance mechanism. His model for the Commando that drives off the end of the cam does not have an advance mechanism.

Ken
 
A bloke told me they were getting a 3 in. spark from a SR2 ( same trip , rotateing magnet ) at 10.000 rpm , which was as high as there test system went ,
Started at 1/2 in. & grew with the revs . Overkill perhaps . The BTH mags were said to be better quality ( & more exppensive ) than the Lucas K2F type .

Whatever you have , it has to be in first class order. But theres a lot to be said for a self contained unit . Particularly for raceing .
Endurance racers used a Board for all the electrical stuff , if there was a problem they replaced the lot in one hit with one plug .
No mucking around .
 
Do the new ones have auto advance or do you utilize the existing advance mechanism. JS sell them modded for much less than Hunt themselves which leads me to think that the $800+ may have a built in advance mechanism and the JS Engineering ones do not and require the existing mechanism to be utilized. This is just my assumption though, hopefully Jim will chime in and advise?

I personally love the look of them but would prefer the ARD unit but I don't hold out much hope of getting my hands on one of those little beauties!!!!
 
Why do you need to advance them once a Joe Hunt is set up they will fire up first kick every time and the faster the rpms the bigger spark they put out, my 850 isn't a stock motor and has a fair bit of work done to it, the Joe Hunt works as good down low RPMs as it does at very high RPMs, it never misses a beat, I have had it on my Norton for over 2 1/2 years now, over 12,000 miles and I haven't even touched the points, but if I need to I have marked all my timing marks on the inside of the maggie mounting plate if I need to do any maintenance on the Joe Hunt , I set the timing at 28 degrees as standard, unbolt the Joe Hunt put it on the bench do what is needed then just bolt it back on at the same settings, no need to retime it, it will be the same as when I first put it on.

I was coming home one day and one of the maggie lead fell out of the maggie cover, it was hanging about 1" to 2" from the cover when the Norton started to misfire I looked down to see the spark jumping that distant and the Norton was still firing on both cylinders but running a little ruff, but have to pull over and turn the motor off to push it back into its hole, if you have ever been booted by a maggie before you know what I mean, I have been booted by my old Triumph Joe Hunt that was only a 2 rare earth magents the new Joe Hunts are 4 rare earth magents and don't I ever want to be zapped by it, yes they are $765 to buy but well worth every cent, I have gone throught 3 electronic ignitions as well all the dramers with standard orginal points in all my 36 years on my Norton and will never go back to anything else and with Jims PWKs carbies they are a perfect match and work so well together.

Ashley
 
Excuse my ignorance Ashley but why then do EI and standard point have an advance feature? I just assumed that you would need that on a hunt magneto as well or is it not needed due to the ever increasing "intensity" of the spark.
Don't get me wrong, I want one and since seeing yours in the flesh, I reakon they look great and from all reports, are as reliable as a Russian tank
 
What I can work out the advance units are to help for easyer starting, but I could be wrong, I'm no expert, but all I know is the Joe Hunt will start my Norton with out no real effort in the kick, when the motor is cold all I do is give it a big swing on the kicker and most of the time it will fire up half way throught the kick and when the motor has been started for the day it will start when just sitting on the seat and not much effort on the kicker and it will fire up every time and my motor has a lot of compression, all i can say is you won't be disapointed with a Joe Hunt, I should become a sales person for Joe Hunt thats how much I beleave in them, with 12 years experances with them on my bikes, they have never let me down at all.

Ashley
 
ashman said:
Why do you need to advance them once a Joe Hunt is set up they will fire up first kick every time and the faster the rpms the bigger spark they put out, my 850 isn't a stock motor and has a fair bit of work done to it, the Joe Hunt works as good down low RPMs as it does at very high RPMs, it never misses a beat, I have had it on my Norton for over 2 1/2 years now, over 12,000 miles and I haven't even touched the points, but if I need to I have marked all my timing marks on the inside of the maggie mounting plate if I need to do any maintenance on the Joe Hunt , I set the timing at 28 degrees as standard, unbolt the Joe Hunt put it on the bench do what is needed then just bolt it back on at the same settings, no need to retime it, it will be the same as when I first put it on.

I was coming home one day and one of the maggie lead fell out of the maggie cover, it was hanging about 1" to 2" from the cover when the Norton started to misfire I looked down to see the spark jumping that distant and the Norton was still firing on both cylinders but running a little ruff, but have to pull over and turn the motor off to push it back into its hole, if you have ever been booted by a maggie before you know what I mean, I have been booted by my old Triumph Joe Hunt that was only a 2 rare earth magents the new Joe Hunts are 4 rare earth magents and don't I ever want to be zapped by it, yes they are $765 to buy but well worth every cent, I have gone throught 3 electronic ignitions as well all the dramers with standard orginal points in all my 36 years on my Norton and will never go back to anything else and with Jims PWKs carbies they are a perfect match and work so well together.

Ashley
Click to expand...

Well, mainly because as the RPM's increase, a greater spark advance is required to create maximum combustion chamber pressure at the CORRECT TIME to produce maximum power. (Been an engineering mainstay for 100 years) The size of the spark isn't the only thing to consider. Just curious if that oversight had been corrected.
 
Dkt26 said:
Do the new ones have auto advance or do you utilize the existing advance mechanism. JS sell them modded for much less than Hunt themselves which leads me to think that the $800+ may have a built in advance mechanism and the JS Engineering ones do not and require the existing mechanism to be utilized. This is just my assumption though, hopefully Jim will chime in and advise?

I personally love the look of them but would prefer the ARD unit but I don't hold out much hope of getting my hands on one of those little beauties!!!!
Click to expand...

None have a built in advance. The Atlas has the advance unit on the sprocket in the timing chest. Side mount Cmd style mags seem to start and work just fine without the auto advance unit as "Ashman" will testify. Yes I sell the Atlas style mag for $675 and the Commando style for $765 - I set them up with some handy improvements over the stock Joe Hunt item (such as easier to time) and a great price for all you Nort fanatics. I've settled on the mag because it gets rid of the battery and is easily repairable (in case you're traveling) where elect ignition is not. Maintenance is - clean points once a year. The spark is much hotter than any elect ign can put out.

special seals provided by JS for Atlas style mags - no sealer is used so you can loosen & move the mag to adjust chain. photo below.

Joe hunt magneto


A special JS mod for Atlas mag provides a locked in allen bolt on the armature (cam) so you can turn the armature to set the timing - without this they are difficult to time. photo below.

Joe hunt magneto


rear mount (got it on my own & I love it)

Joe hunt magneto


Ashmans side mount

Joe hunt magneto
 
Sorry but I'm learning,
does the hotter spark negate the need for the advancing spark at higher rpm on the commando side mount unit? Is the advance mechanism within the timing chest of the atlas style mounted Maggie just there because its there or does it perform a function of some measurable benefit that the side mounted version does not?
I love the idea and look but I have had so many ignition problems, I'm over it. Points- pain in the arse. 3 trispark units that have all blown up due to manufacturer issues ( replaced under warranty) and now Boyer that has worked ok, but I have no faith in.
 
I want one for the simplicity. No battery, no coils, just a kill switch. And the reliability. I have an ARD on one of my Triumphs, its great.
 
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