Reply To: Correcting fixed ignition timing

[sidevalve5]

Hi Andy,

I do not know the model the armature plate and flywheel came from. I purchased a Clifford roteo with a Mk25c engine about 15 years ago. The vendor was honest and said he thought the coil had packed up and suggested an external coil from a Honda C50 could be rigged up as a fix. Did try, but through lack of knowledge I think I omitted to remove the secondary windings from the duff coil. Also it was highly likely that the original coil still did not have enough primary windings to induce the secondary. The ratio needs to be around 100 : 1. A friend gave me the parts with the sheared shaft to see if the coil would fit. It didn’t, so I got a replacement that George Shead was selling at the time that required a little bit of work to fit. I have never tried to remove the sheared shaft from the flywheel to see if the woodruff key has bent over or sheared too. In fact I do not even know if there is one, it could be just a plain taper like the Mk25c. If so, its an example of someone over-tightening the flywheel nut.

David’s post has reignited (pun intended) my thoughts about the timing on my Kohler K181. The Condor was always a bad starter and it was not helped with the usual drag problem with belt clutches preventing the engine from turning over as rapidly as it should with a hand start. When I got the Ransomes Bobcat, I retired the Hayter. After I wrote my reply yesterday I did a bit of research and found a lot about timing the K series engine. Apparently unless the ignition is spot on, the problems I was having manifest themselves. One chap said he initially set the points to 0.020” and even reducing it to 0.018” with static timing from the flywheel marks made a vast improvement. Others say more accuracy can be obtained with a strobe. But the consensus was that just setting the points to 0.020” was not good enough, they then need adjusting to the timing marks. If using a static method, the old fag paper trick is not good enough, you need a multimeter. Many years ago I had a tuned Yamaha RD400 with a twin set of points and ignition timing had to be checked every 700 miles. I got a plug adaptor so a dial gauge could measure the piston position to 0.1mm and used the multimeter to see when the points opened. Am going to have a good look at the Condor this weekend and give the ignition timing a thorough checking over. Looking forward to it.

Grahame