Timing help

Actually, torque, as applied to a fastener, is only the measured resistance to turning. In fact, with poorly machined threads, you may reach the specified torque, but the clamping force will be much less than needed.

Be careful of what ya stick in the plug hole to find TDC.
Probes put in hole are not really aiming down as piston as
much as sideways to crown and move out of hole for a while
as piston rises then bind and bends or breaks, like the pencil
I was using once. I was very carefully easing piston up but
it did not take any sense of extra effort to snap off 2" with
eraser end down the bore. Really considered just runing it
till burnt up and blown out but for the metal eraser rim.
Floated in in gas, tipped bike to bring hole upward then
forceps got it out, after few fumbles.

I mark my altn. rotors with knife edge at TDC and 30' so
never have to hunt TDC or first start timing setting again.
Primary drive damage removed the lying scale on my 1st
Combat, don't miss it a bit. 2nd Combat its retained for show.

hobot

L.A.B. said:

speirmoor said:

Is there a specific dial indicator for aircooled cylinders?

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Not that I'm aware of?

speirmoor said:

I want to find TDC using the piston and a degree wheel rather than trusting the markings?

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So, make a "piston stop"?

And here's how to use it, as posted by Ron L in a previous thread:
post41831.html

Ron L said:

A piston stop is a solid stop that is usually made from an old spark plug with the ceramic removed. A bolt or rod is welded into it and the end rounded to prevent damage when in contact with the piston. The device is screwed into the spark plug hole and the engine rotated slowly forward until it stops, the degrees read from the wheel, then the engine is rotated backward until it contact the stop again. The degrees are read from the wheel and TDC is exactly between these two readings. Remove the stop and rotate the engine to the determined TDC reading and you can make a reference mark on your alternator rotor and primary to allow you to readily find TDC in the future.

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Thanks for that Lab thats a great idea!

An update on my issue:

A couple weeks back, we we went to do the timing with the strobe, but we couldn’t get the timing right; we ended up pulling a plug wire to test the spark, and it would chain spark upon turning the ignition key on. Thinking it mat be the coils, I switched out the 12V coils to 6V ones, and that seemed to cure the chain spark, but it wouldn’t spark on kick-over. Checking the Boyer Bransden site, and using their troubleshooting section, we determined that the black box might be bad (spark when ignition was turned on, but not when kicking it over; we disconnected the wires from the contact plate to the box, touched the wires, and no spark), so I ended up sending the box back to the place I got it from and they tested it as well, determining that it’s definitely bad. They mentioned that there are some units that are sensitive to AC voltage leaking through the rectifier, and thus burn out. So they’re sending a modded unit to me (I guess one that’s been corrected by Boyer Bransden?), but they recommended checking and/or replacing my rectifier just in case, so I’m going to switch to a solid state unit.

Figure I'd give a heads-up in case anyone has a similar issue.

Looks like you are making progress. Let us knnow what the final outcome is.