Pinging problem

agreed there is maintenance required with the points and aau. It's mechanical after all.
You do need a better EI if that is your choice. Even Boyer make a better unit than the Boyer you have.
Look around, they have some good faq on the sites and there are numerous discussions on here too.
The current owners of EI on here can be a lot of help too although some opinion does inevitably enter the discussion.
I have the points, the original setup came as spares with the motorbike but missing one of the bob weights, they are back in with the help of a member here donating some good used parts. The Boyer MKIII just never made me happy since it depends so heavily on very good voltage supply to work even as miserably as it did and that good voltage is simply not available all the time. The E start mucks that up a bit when it is most needed.
You know if I was to motor around like 5K miles per season then I may go EI but this is just casual transport for me so the points will need infrequent attention.
All the best.

I've had point fired P!! dragster and both my Combats came with points and they all worked a better treat than any but the newest programmed ignitions, till the AAU went south. As side line hobby I'm going to restore some AAU/s and have an essentially new one to put in soon. Its not recommended to use bike battery to power time light d/t voltage drops unless you've full charged one - should work as intended. Its kinda of subtle but I like the better response of points when going lazy legal-ish riding around as less throttle effect for intended zing. Same I found with dual 32' carbs over the Miki 34, subtle but enough I can tell. Don't mis-consture me, my most potent Combat set up was small head ports, analog Boyer and Miki 34 and lightened up a bit, could hunt down and out run '04 600's till over 100 mph then still hang with em or rather they'd catch up with us going 120-130. But w/o 3 rod links I'd never have a chance in real turns so don't care to play like that on a factory C'do's, just enjoy them at best factory set up.

Once you time in close ball park don't quit till tired a bit of fudging up or dn. Then can play with plug gap and heat range and plug gap indexing for a bit sweeter yet sensations.

I glued the narrow end of a cut off golf tee on the center back of my home printed degree circle and just tap it into the drive side crank. Mount a pointer under the center stud on the primary. You can put it on the timing side too, but it works at double (half?) speed. I like drive side.

Pazon is working good for me, but I wouldn't mind going back to AAU if I can get it fixed.

Dave
69S

With engine assembled its a booger to mount a wire pointer, I just held a wire on barrel by another magnet. I like the way points start, usually half way down fairly slow kick as most EI need two signals and some speed of transition to wake up. Glad the ping left with better timing but still don't know if timing really off or needed retard to compensate for another issue.

If you want to go EI look at Old Britts Power Arc EI. I have one and love it, set engine to TDC and move slotted optic disc until red TDC light comes on and tighten down with light still on. It has a second progrrammed curve in it if you want to put a swtich on the white wire so you can turn it off and on, I have not done mine yet but that is for a rainy day once I can find a swtich I like and figure how to mount it!!

Inductive points ignition system in good condition will work quite a bit better than nearly all EI systems. However this is not the case with a worn out AAU, which as the Lucas units are pretty poor means that most are badly worn. Not sure if there is any Honda with points system driven from cam, which could be modified to fit the Norton? If the AAU problems could be sorted out, then points working in conjunction with a electronic box which converts the points themselves into low power trigger (which means no more burnt points!) would be very good, and advance could be tuned to work very well, through using different springs.

Carbonfibre said:

Inductive points ignition system in good condition will work quite a bit better than nearly all EI systems. However this is not the case with a worn out AAU, which as the Lucas units are pretty poor means that most are badly worn. Not sure if there is any Honda with points system driven from cam, which could be modified to fit the Norton? If the AAU problems could be sorted out, then points working in conjunction with a electronic box which converts the points themselves into low power trigger (which means no more burnt points!) would be very good, and advance could be tuned to work very well, through using different springs.

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Good in theory and in fact there are plenty of little black (or not so ) boxes that will do this. The sticking point is that the points do still require a not so small current to keep the contacts clean other wise the triggering gets very erratic.

Personally I would be quite prepared to clean points occasionally in order to have a system that worked much better than nearly all the EI stuff, and which could be easily repaired if anything went wrong.

I may need a better EI unit

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I have a Boyer MKIII, it works fine.

That EI, this EI, points?
My head hurts!

Waht a minute here. A norris cam? What kind of Norris cam? This cam can make a difference on the compression you try to get.

Again, what are the number pertaining to this cam?

Yeah what pvisseriii asks and I did too earlier. Only Norris profiles I can find are all more over lapped with longer duration than factor cams, they should all lower lower rpm CR but raise CR as rpm rise. Higher CR burn charge faster so needs less lead time.

hobot said:

Yeah what pvisseriii asks and I did too earlier. Only Norris profiles I can find are all more over lapped with longer duration than factor cams, they should all lower lower rpm CR but raise CR as rpm rise. Higher CR burn charge faster so needs less lead time.

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Sorry I missed your earlier post about the Norris cam thoughts. That IS where I was going to also.

Sometime reading through your posts can be a little challenging. No offence and don't chance ( like you would or could).

Who sir, me sir, no sir, not me sir. My brain got mushed a few times which scrambled the paths to letters and words, which reconnected with many ways to same or similar output. Semotmies my voltage is up and fires on time others its low voltage acts like a analog Boyer. Of course I do like to suck down a gas tank or battery before topping off again....

I bet he's just got the Norris SS which is there version of Combat 2S cam so same timing and tune rules apply. Betcha his timing landed about 28' once time lighted with time wheel indexed and nothing more to do there.
http://www.johnsoncams.com/jc_n_cams.html

pvisseriii said:

hobot said:

Yeah what pvisseriii asks and I did too earlier. Only Norris profiles I can find are all more over lapped with longer duration than factor cams, they should all lower lower rpm CR but raise CR as rpm rise. Higher CR burn charge faster so needs less lead time.

Click to expand...

Sorry I missed your earlier post about the Norris cam thoughts. That IS where I was going to also.

Sometime reading through your posts can be a little challenging. No offence and don't chance ( like you would or could).

Click to expand...

Gotta love ya Hobot but I find it hard to follow you too, no offense.
As for the cam, I bought this bike with it already installed about around 1978 so I am not sure what kind it is or how to identify it.
How would I go about identifying it?
I retarded the timing to about 26-27.
There is a small bit of scatter. Could that be a slack timing chain?

Could be chain and that would mess with timing of spark and valves. Only way to check cam in engine is set up dial gauge with degree wheel and take readings, especially where max lift happens. Makes ya feel like a real mechanic too. I'll bet your engine is configured to Combat specs which is a good thing to my mind. Octane matters of course but the best down and dirty way I found on Combat timing was to creep up on advance till it backfired to start then creep back till it just didn't, then I look to see where it landed and try on road. You need a few TS gaskets on hand as need to look in time to time and they tend to come apart. A few oil pump nipples too, that must be matched to the gasket thickness, there are two combo's either is ok. 850 combo preferred. Hope this is clear lingo.

Crystal clear Hobot.
What you said makes sense.
I wanted to go in there anyway.
Gaskets and nipples are on my order list.
Now, these downloadable degree wheels are huge, like 7" across. I'm not sure how to use them on a Norton.
I am good with engines as I build and race VW engines so I have the tools and know how to understand how it's done if someone could tell me or if there is a link to it.
Thanks

A paper one glued to cardboard is harder to handle and get accurate, I'd sure get a cheap plastic one at about any auto parts or online. I could even send ya mine with a magnet to hold it on crank. You are ahead of me and the pack with VW background in your blood. Gotta turn engine for check the chain tension with and w/o the valve springs tension and slight off centering of sprockets.
The cover screw are like in 3 lengths so four ways to get it right again, trial-error, read manual, place em all in cover and arrange so all are sticking beyond cover similar amount or drill a pattern in a wood block to mimic the cover shape and place em in that as removed to retrieve in orderly fashion to install. I Hylomar the gasket to the cover and just grease the case surface for easier removal to preserve gasket and its also easier to clean up cover surface than case side when time to renew gasket. I have to remove header to get my covers off, so must have on hand big serious exhaust ring wrench with 3-4 ft breaker bar to nip up again. Put some Milk of Magnesia as hi temp anti-seize as should big so tight you need help getting them off as no worry coming loose riding TIGHT.