What have you done with your bike/s today?

[Joolstacho]

Don't know about the twins, but there were 'tight-wire' and 'loose-wire' versions of the maggys, certainly BTH did both - you can see which side of the points end the advance cable exits.

[groily]

if I remember right people talk of full advance tight cable? or am I talking sh*t  again. any way maggy is on and I hope I got the fag paper release just right.

one other thing that has pi**ed me off is the very very expensive cam ring I bought a good few years ago is measuring a gap of 12 and 15 thou it will do I suppose. so to cap off with fags and cups of tea and finding tools etc my 20 minute job has been 3 hours up to now. couldn't resist a piccy while pondering

Anti-clockwise drive mag, cable entry on cylinder side = slack advance, yup.

Points gap unevenness likely not due to camring itself Berger if it's still in good nick.
Could be several things - wear in the housing is quite common on manual mags - and any slop at all can affect relative points gaps.
Or / And the seating of the outer race of the cb end bearing may not be perfectly concentric. Reseating with a new insulator cup will often 'cure' or materially improve a problem here.
More to the point (ha!) is the interval between the sparks. Ideally, 180:180° but often several degrees off on a well used K2F. It is more important to have that right than to have perfectly equal points gaps (as long as we're only talking a modest difference between them) - It's nice when the two go hand in hand but they don't always.
A third factor can be wear on the opening point. Wear on the pivot post can cause much the same thing sometimes. You'd think all these things would even out and affect both sides the same but they sadly don't.

[berger]

I really like that input groily- get ya a case of beer for that one on the nail with that info. the cam ring was 100£s worth several years ago made on modern machinery in Sweden I think and not had much use at all because it stayed in the comp mag when I changed them after my oil pipe feed & return disaster a few years ago. so yes those other factors are a bit more knowledge for my retarded brain cell to try and keep hold of.

[Joolstacho]

Do you guru's know (Groily will be across this) - if the camring is the same on the tightwire and loosewire) - maybe just rotated 180 degrees and with the 'stop' screw cutout moved?

[bikerbob]

Went to go out on the A7 yesterday afternoon discovered flat back tyre blew it up but this morning flat again no obvious nail or screw in the tyre. Took the whelel off and removed the inner tube and found a leak but tube looks suspicious has been repaired before and where it is leaking there is some damage to the tube so have ordered a new tube £14.85 from Classic Bike Spares have used them before no problems. Getting the back wheel off is a bit of a problem  as you have to get the rear end high enough up to slide the wheel out after removing the right hand silencer this is the swinging arm model. Can't remember when I last had a pucture took a while to find the tyre levers in my chaotic garage must have a sort out sometime.

[Black Sheep]

Decided to check the timing on the ulra reliable first kick starting A10 (why???). It was a bit advanced as it turns out. Set it up by the book, took a bit longer than expected being out of practice and went to start it. One weak cough and then nothing. Rechecked the timing - all ok. Checked for sparks - nothing. The only thing I had disturbed at all was the points. So cleaned and checked them. Nothing. Put in a spare set of points. Nothing. Ah well, I'll put the spare mag on next time I have a quiet hour to spare... At least the Norton's going ok.

[KiwiGF]

Tightened the primary chain for the first time since it was new, as it was so loose it was making a tapping noise hitting the case, then I had to adjust the rear chain, top up primary oil, all in all messing about for an hour.

I think rather than buy a new primary chain, as thats probably required, I will spring for a belt drive. Lots of $$$$ but........

Then went for a ride for a couple of hours with a 70 yr old mate who borrowed my rigid B31, he hadn’t ridden for 5 years and maybe may never have ridden a bike again, and he had never ridden an old British bike, he had a really big grin when we got back 

[groily]

Do you guru's know (Groily will be across this) - if the camring is the same on the tightwire and loosewire) - maybe just rotated 180 degrees and with the 'stop' screw cutout moved?

Camrings are made blank Jools and can be notched any which way. Typically there will be one small notch in the right place (one hopes!) for a fixed ring, and a wide one to limit movement of the advance/retard (about 11mm wide usually) plus a small V-angled one for the plunger on a  manual one. That will be left or right side of the notch depending, and in many cases one sees one of each. (Not to mention any extra notches cut by people over the years.)
Rings can be rotated 180°, sure (as long as it's not a V twin (!) where there are other considerations).
Single cyl ones can also be rotated, but you then use the other flip point of the armature and the polarity of the spark will reverse. Ideally you want negative on a single.
Reversal of rotation always entails moving the camring position.
Note that early K2Fs had two small axial screws on the cb housing to secure a ring with a wide notch in the fixed position, and just one if it was manual. So one wide notch suited all mags. Then, the eccentric stop pin came along, and different notching. Better, because you have tuning ability.
Sometimes, a camring looks like a castellated nut, more notch than ring almost!

[RDfella]

Black Sheep - wouldn't have set it 180* out by mistake? Tried swapping the leads?

[metalflake11]

Black Sheep - wouldn't have set it 180* out by mistake? Tried swapping the leads?

He said he's got no sparks.

Something is probably earthed that shouldn't be, or not earthed when it should.

[Worty]

Bob, getting the rear wheel out of the Flash is a b*****d.   I sort of perfected the 'lean it over onto my belly, making sure it didn't fall forward off its centre stand and wiggle out' procedure .  Oh, and if you do this, make sure you have a floor full of rags so when the brake plate falls off it doesn't chip all your nice paint work or powder coating.   Would have been a smart idea for BSA to have retained the hinged mudguard arrangement for the swinging arm models.   I guess another way would be to put the bike on a raised plinth on the centre stand and remove the bottom shocker bolts, but you'd still have to make sure the bike didn't tip forward, fall over, and put a nice dent in the tank as well.

[Greybeard]

Decided to check the timing on the ulra reliable first kick starting A10 (why???). It was a bit advanced as it turns out. Set it up by the book, took a bit longer than expected being out of practice and went to start it. One weak cough and then nothing. Rechecked the timing - all ok. Checked for sparks - nothing. The only thing I had disturbed at all was the points. So cleaned and checked them. Nothing. Put in a spare set of points. Nothing. Ah well, I'll put the spare mag on next time I have a quiet hour to spare... At least the Norton's going ok.

Have you swapped the HT leads?

[Black Sheep]

Didn't swap the leads as no spark from either plug. Anyway, hadn't turned the engine over so shouldn't be 180 out. I'll take a look at the mag on the bench when I do the swap. A bit puzzling though, why should a good sparking mag suddenly stop when adjusting the ignition timing? As RD fella says, there's a connectivity issue somewhere. On the bright side, better a failure in the shed than on the road.
Was hoping to get a ride in this afternoon but feeling too sh1te to try. Damn.

[Swarfcut]

 No sparks?  Try with the magneto end cap off, an unwanted earth connection here will effectively turn off the LT circuit.

     Points plate misaligned on the key and taper can induce wobble and allow the spring on a late all steel points backplate  to touch the cam. Because of the circuit arrangement within, this earths the points.
      Doesn't happen with the early brass points mount, the circuit arrangement is different and here the spring is on the earthed side of the points. Worth checking the points and their mountings for correct assembly regarding insulating bushes and washers.

 Swarfy.

[bikerbob]

Wortluck my technique is to lean the bike over and with my foot slide a !" block of wood under the center stand then go round to the other side lean bike over and wth my foot slide in a 2" block of wood then back round again lean over bike slide out the 1" block and slide in a 3" approx block this gives enough  clearance with right hand silencer rmoved to slide out the back wheel.