Joe Hunt magneto

Matchless said:
Don't know who was "rebuilding" your K2F mags Jim but he can't have been very good. I've currently have three bikes with K2Fs & another with an SR2. They all start easily & run very well. One of the bigggest issues with K2Fs is inaccurately ground cam rings causing a timing difference between cylinders.
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I went through four K2F mags. Had nothing but trouble with all of them. Had a couple rebuilt by what I thought were reputable repairmen, but who can you trust? Maybe just bad luck. One thing I hated about them was the difficulty of changing out the condenser. Its a poor design. Why spin the windings when you can spin the magnet instead and get rid of the brushes?

They work good for some people I hear but they never worked well for me.
 
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Compare a K2F mag to a JH mag and you will understand why the JHs are so much better, so much simpler, a lot more bang and ease to work or replace parts, I wouldn't hesitate to run a JH on my Manxman instead of the Lucas mag, just for reliability and bigger spark.
As well the cost involved in rebuilding a K2F mag would be better in the long run putting a new JH on behind the cylinders, because my Manxman project bike was an ex race bike and don't have the parts to bring it back to original it's going to be built as a cafe racer as I have all the parts to build it.
As far as I know only one person only had troubles with a JH and we all know who that was as it dragged on for so loneeeee.

Ashley
 
jseng1 said:
I went through four K2F mags. Had nothing but trouble with all of them. Had a couple rebuilt by what I thought were reputable repairmen, but who can you trust? Maybe just bad luck. One thing I hated about them was the difficulty of changing out the condenser. Its a poor design. Why spin the windings when you can spin the magnet instead and get rid of the brushes?

They work good for some people I hear but they never worked well for me.
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I think it might have been a packaging issue as K2Fs are long but slim, where as the rotating magnet SR1 &SR2s are short but tall, much the same as Morris & Hunt mags.
 
jseng1 said:
From researching them - so far they all take a turn or two before they spark. From what I've learned its the nature of CDI. I wish it weren't so.
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I checked with Stephen Kelly at Tri-Spark. He stated that his ignition will fire on the first compression stroke, has an advance curve that will deliver 25 crankshaft degrees, and will advance a few degrees at idle if necessary to help keep the motor running while idling. He also said he believes the Boyer is more of what you are referring to in regards to when it will initially fire.
 
jamesp said:
I checked with Stephen Kelly at Tri-Spark. He stated that his ignition will fire on the first compression stroke, has an advance curve that will deliver 25 crankshaft degrees, and will advance a few degrees at idle if necessary to help keep the motor running while idling. He also said he believes the Boyer is more of what you are referring to in regards to when it will initially fire.
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I did some more research and yes the trispark and pazon both spark within the first revolution. Magnetos with points also spark within the 1st revolution. But the magneto CDI needs to build up a charge and turn before it will spark. That charge needs to build in a magneto but with a battery powered EI it can spark immediately.
 
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ashman said:
Compare a K2F mag to a JH mag and you will understand why the JHs are so much better, so much simpler, a lot more bang and ease to work or replace parts, I wouldn't hesitate to run a JH on my Manxman instead of the Lucas mag, just for reliability and bigger spark.
As well the cost involved in rebuilding a K2F mag would be better in the long run putting a new JH on behind the cylinders, because my Manxman project bike was an ex race bike and don't have the parts to bring it back to original it's going to be built as a cafe racer as I have all the parts to build it.
As far as I know only one person only had troubles with a JH and we all know who that was as it dragged on for so loneeeee.

Ashley
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Actually a friend and I both had very serious issues with Jo Hunt. Twenty years ago now. Two new magnetos. Bought directly from Jo Hunt in USA. Issues included cam assemetry, rotor disintegrating and snapping shafts, leaking seals, needle punching of shaft to get bearing interference. Abuse on the telephone telling us we didn't know what we were doing.

Between us we have about 10 NZ club titles on bikes we built. My friend designed and built from scratch a Velo 350 engine that has lapped the IOM Manx at 97 mph.

They are not my favourite company and had they been in NZ we would have taken them to small Claims court. The original Jo Hunt was a very talented guy. The people who ran the company in around 2000 were not.
 
johnm said:
Actually a friend and I both had very serious issues with Jo Hunt. Twenty years ago now. Two new magnetos. Bought directly from Jo Hunt in USA. Issues included cam assemetry, rotor disintegrating and snapping shafts, leaking seals, needle punching of shaft to get bearing interference. Abuse on the telephone telling us we didn't know what we were doing.

Between us we have about 10 NZ club titles on bikes we built. My friend designed and built from scratch a Velo 350 engine that has lapped the IOM Manx at 97 mph.

They are not my favourite company and had they been in NZ we would have taken them to small Claims court. The original Jo Hunt was a very talented guy. The people who ran the company in around 2000 were not.
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Is there a chance this was what Norluck was battling?
 
concours said:
Is there a chance this was what Norluck was battling?
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Not really.

He had a very confused idea about how to fit the mag and most importantly the asymmetry of the cam on the mag he trying to fit was due to it being for a v twin not a Norton 360 crank. So probably 45 plus degrees off 180.

The cams on our mags were around 3 or 4 degrees out side to side. Due to the way they built the rotors at that time. They were made of literally 12 plus pieces screwed together. The cam carrier was pressed onto the shaft and depending on the fit coukd easily end up off centre.

The whole design was total rubbish. Their first attempts at rare earth magnet rotor.

The current design looks to be very different however I have only seen photos.
 
johnm said:
Actually a friend and I both had very serious issues with Jo Hunt. Twenty years ago now. Two new magnetos. Bought directly from Jo Hunt in USA. Issues included cam assemetry, rotor disintegrating and snapping shafts, leaking seals, needle punching of shaft to get bearing interference. Abuse on the telephone telling us we didn't know what we were doing.

Between us we have about 10 NZ club titles on bikes we built. My friend designed and built from scratch a Velo 350 engine that has lapped the IOM Manx at 97 mph.

They are not my favourite company and had they been in NZ we would have taken them to small Claims court. The original Jo Hunt was a very talented guy. The people who ran the company in around 2000 were not.
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Sorry to hear that Johnm, I have never had any problem with JH, but the JH on my old 81 Triumph Thunderbrid I brought off a mate second hand back in 82 but it was rebuilt, the JH for my Norton I brought through Lowbrows was $20 cheaper than JH but I have brought tune up kits through JH for the old JH maggie as well a new coil, just recently I brought 2 tune up kits as well 2 spare front covers for my spare parts cabinet and have had no problems with ordering them and postage to Aus from JH.
I found the hex shaft that came with my new JH was very soft so have replaced it with an allen key hex the same size as the hex shaft that came with the JH, one allen key you get 3 hex shafts so have 2 spares if need them they are harder than the JH hex.
The tune up kits come with new point, condenser and new plug leads and only $40 and new front cover was about the same, so now have 2 tune up kits and spare front cover as I slid down the road where the plug leads in the front cover sheard off where they go in the cover, lucky a mate at the time had a old cover.

Ashley
 
ashman said:
Sorry to hear that Johnm, I have never had any problem with JH, but the JH on my old 81 Triumph Thunderbrid I brought off a mate second hand back in 82 but it was rebuilt, the JH for my Norton I brought through Lowbrows was $20 cheaper than JH but I have brought tune up kits through JH for the old JH maggie as well a new coil, just recently I brought 2 tune up kits as well 2 spare front covers for my spare parts cabinet and have had no problems with ordering them and postage to Aus from JH.
I found the hex shaft that came with my new JH was very soft so have replaced it with an allen key hex the same size as the hex shaft that came with the JH, one allen key you get 3 hex shafts so have 2 spares if need them they are harder than the JH hex.
The tune up kits come with new point, condenser and new plug leads and only $40 and new front cover was about the same, so now have 2 tune up kits and spare front cover as I slid down the road where the plug leads in the front cover sheard off where they go in the cover, lucky a mate at the time had a old cover.

Ashley
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Hi Ashley

My race bike has been parked up 10 years now but I'm getting it back together right now actually. So I will need to look at the mag. I rebuilt the original JH body with Morris mag parts (rotor, coil points condenser etc) and it worked perfectly for around 150 races. Then sat 10 years.

I'll get a new condenser, points leads etc and also check the bearings and seals. Unfortunately I hear Morris has had a few issues lately too. Hope things go OK. I think a big issue is the original guys grew old, retire and often the new owners or staff are just not as good as the guy who made the company. I guess that makes sense in many ways.

I'll let you know how it goes.
 
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concours said:
Is there a chance this was what Norluck was battling?
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No Norluck just didn't listen or accept advice and was doing things wrong with his set up, I kept telling him through PVT messages what he was doing wrong and he hassled me for months before he even brought his 2 JH maggies asking for advice, I think he just upset Jim as well JH themselves as really he was just setting it up all wrong, after sometime I just gave up on trying to help him and he got off side with a lot of people in NZ who were trying to help him, just couldn't get through to him and his way was always right even when it wasn't.
You can only help so much but when someone just won't listen, you just can't help them.

Ashley
 
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