After the restoration: 14400-mile service [page 3]
Wednesday, Mar 21, 2007 [13985 miles]
It's been well over a month since I've done anything on the R69S. Either the weather has been too nice so I've been out riding my R1200GS or the weather has been misserable so I've not felt like working out in the garage. Too bad, had I started earlier I'd have found the problem with the bike earlier and been riding it on some of those nice days instead of the GS.
One of the things I have done this last month was prepare a "new" advance unit out of pieces from older advance units, selecting the best parts. I thought I'd try this to see if it makes any difference in my top end. More on that, later.
I pulled the front cover to replace the advance and check the static timing. The two pictures of the coil/magneto show the problem that caused me to start this service early, but I didn't notice it yet. The new advance mechanism went on the bike and I checked the points and adjusted them for appropriate static timing. Then I looked at the spark plug leads.
Well, no wonder the bike is hard to start. Notice the lead for the left side spark. The retaining screw has worked its way loose and the lead is just dangling in the socket. I'm amazed that the bike started at all. I pulled things appart looking for the missing screw but couldn't find it. I'll have to scrounge one up as my only spares are with my spare coil which is out on loan. I expect the bike will start easier with both spark leads firmly attached.
Sunday, Mar 31, 2007 [13985 miles]
Jeff brought me the needed set screw (and a spare) yesterday. I hooked the spark plug leads up and tried to start the bike. It eventually ran, quite poorly, for maybe 30 seconds. Twice. Then I got tired and decided to think about things for a bit.
When trying to start I'm sometimes getting a backfire through the exhaust. At least I think it's through the exhaust. That tells me the timing is off (retarded) or the mixture is too lean. The static timing is correct, but this is a freshly re-built advance mechanism made from the best parts of two not-so-good advance mechanisms I had in my "junk" box. The point is that timing issues are certainly a possibility.
Also, the last thing I did as part of cleaning the carbs was to set the idle air adjustment to the bing recommended starting point of two turns out -- they were about one turn out. That was the inspiration for the pictures. Actually, I just like taking pictures of my bike.
Amazing, I touched two things and both can cause the symptoms I'm seeing :-) I think I'm going to adjust the idle air screws back to where I found them before cleaning the carbs and try again. If that doesn't work I'll go back to the advance that I took off the bike.
Later Sunday afternoon...
I wrote above that the bike was either lean, or retarded. How about both! Can I mess up a bike, or what :-)
I reset the idle air to 1 turn from lightly seated and got the bike started without too much effort. It wouldn't idle at less than about 1500 RPM, however. The timing light showed that the S mark was in the middle of the window. At that RPM I'd have expected it to be in the upper part of the window if it could be seen at all. OK, the timing was off, too.
For the fun of it I put the old advance unit back on the bike and started it without even checking the static timing. The bike idles at around 800 RMP but the timing light shows that the the timing is too advanced. Not surprising. I'll let the pipes cool down and get the bike timed, later. I'm tired of burning myself on hot pipes when working on the ignition.