Tri-spark update

Hello all after a series of upgrades electrical wiring harness coils, starter cables sparxs alt reg. tri-spark ing. New carbs 932's now was the time to fire her up. Took awhile to start till i realized right carb wasn't flooding properly.Floats heights had to be raised haven't tried starting since. Pretty cold her in mich. but after fiddling with wiring and second guessing my self on other up-grades she fired up and ran pretty good on poorly synced carbs . Let her warm up and did a compression test warm motor throttles wide open 140 on each cylinder how does that sound? Also checked alt. output voltmeter across battery 12 volt at idle almost 15 volts at high RPMs is that the right way to check out-put? Outside temp very cold does it matter to tweek carbs now or wait for warm-up. All in all impressed with tri-spark happy with sparxs disapointed with BCS high out put starter still got alot to do but thats were she stands know to tweek and check the plugs colors thanks M.c.

Sure sounds good to me sport. I'll be interested to see how those Tri-sparks work out. Sure was cold kick starting mine the other day.

Isn't 15V a bit high for your regulator to be permitting?

Just checked my notes - I was getting 14.92 volts when revving on my own Sparx set-up. I always meant to look into that a little further, guess I never did. So I'll be doubly interested in any views on the subject.

Off the top of my head that doesn't sound too bad. Personally I do a lot of short trips with my headlight on and I'm always trying to get an extra volt here and there.
What really matters is how much your machine uses in your use, you don't want it to boil the battery but you do want to be able to keep it charged.
We'll see what others say but I'd run it and be happy.

Me too Cookie, although I do do some longer trips, maybe 300 mile-days at best (not frequent).

I can tell you that when I hook up the battery tender after ANY ride, the tender indicates "full charge" pretty quickly. So the alternator is definitely keeping the battery fully charged. My only concern is whether it's overcharging. Have seen no apparent signs of it.

tri-spark sparxs update

hello again went back at it started good got it idling checked alt. output again at a idle high 11's at high RPMs high 14's and then dropped. Noticed i lost my turn signals with head light on head light off turn signals work . thinking something vibrated a connection loose any thoughts ? also messed with air screws on both carbs one seems like it aint bottoming out like the other side when you tighten it all the way in even with the o-ring off. little bit of the screw head sticks out. the other side goes in flush. maybe a deformed air screw i'll have to get anther one and check it.M,C.

It's pretty easy to find overcharging. I've seen batteries warp and buckle but the first thing you usually notice is the water boils off fairly quickly.
Regulators are always a compromise and bike regulators are worst since they often don't adjust and are pretty stupid as far as regulation goes.
I use mostly the newer type batteries which can take a bit more abuse myself. In my Norton I have one my little brother took out of a power supply (he runs a cable company and needs power on the poles) at a little over 16 volts.
I love gel cells.

Next time, I'll do a very small Odyssey battery. Have grown to swear by those, albeit that was after I replaced the Norton's.

Just an update on tri-spark ignitions as I know a number of us were canvasing opinions about alternatives to Boyer. Yesterday I helped a friend replace a Boyer (non digital version) with a Tri-spark on his 1970 750 Commando. The bike had run perfectly well with the Boyer, it idled adequately and pulled strongly all the way to the red line. With the Tri-spark fitted the idle seems much more stable, although a seat-of-the-pants dynamometer test indicates about the same power throughout the rev range. One benefit seems to be that the bike can now run for a prolonged period with the headlight on without starting to misfire after a long ride, due to insufficient battery charging at lower RPM. I suspect that the Tri-spark claim to require less amperage to power the unit is correct. I found the fitment to be very easy to achieve and a compact and elegant engineering solution. Another friend fitted a Tri-spark to his Triumph 650 Bonneville and it improved the bike considerably throughout the rev range. The Tri-spark is about twice the cost of a Boyer, but I will be using them in future as I consider these units to be superior.