Topic: Advance question

[johnyvilla]

My mechanical advances (no jokes) have allways worked well, so I have never had to touch them. My friend recently set his points and timing to find that his 750 wasn't advancing all the way, under the scrutiny of a strobe light. I did a search and all I could find was to take the unit out, clean it and re-grease it. Some posts claimed that in this situation it was best to set the timing at advance, rather than idle, since this is where the motor will most likely spend most of its time. Is this just a quick fix?
thanks

[Steve F]

If you try that, my opinion is it won't idle.  Taking the unit out and cleaning and regreasing probably takes 20 to 30 minutes, and it's a simple thing to do.  Just be careful removing those spring clips and the small washers off the posts.  Remember which way the cam was oriented in relationship with the crankshaft key when reassembling.

[TwoTired]

If you are racing the bike, and need all the power it can make, then set the timing at max advance.  Who cares about idle?
If you are driving on the street and wish the bike to run well while waiting at stop signs, stop lights, or in parking lots, then set the timing at idle.

If you want both, then fix the timing advancer to give both correct timing at idle and full timing advance at RPM.

Cheers,

[MCRider]

If you are racing the bike, and need all the power it can make, then set the timing at max advance.  Who cares about idle?
If you are driving on the street and wish the bike to run well while waiting at stop signs, stop lights, or in parking lots, then set the timing at idle.

If you want both, then fix the timing advancer to give both correct timing at idle and full timing advance at RPM.

Cheers,

With easy visual inspection, if the distance between the spring coils is not consistent, they may be fagged out. They weaken from use, age, and heat. If so, and you set it at full advance, they aren't strong enough to pull it back down to idle. If you set it at idle it jumps to full advance too soon, and in an erratic fashion.

(Your problem was not reaching full advance, so my advice is a little off topic, but some may find it useful.)

Clean and grease will help, , if the springs are bad only a new one will fix it. And when they are bad and you replace it, you can tell the difference.

[johnyvilla]

I took every thing apart and the mechanism looked good, and had nice action. We will see if cleaning it changed something.