TOPIC:

Merry Christmas to all, or Happy Holidays as you may prefer. I want to verify some point setting and timing information. As I understand it when using an old school tach and dwell meter that only reads in degrees and that only has cylinder settings of 4,6 and 8, I should set it on 8 cylinders and look for a reading of 22.5 degrees. Is this correct? If not, what reading should I be looking for?

Secondly, if the above is true, when I set my dwell at 22.5 degrees and then attempted to set the low speed timing to the "F" mark (left side points) I had to run my base plate, the one held on with 3 screws, to the right as far as it would go. The point plate is also over to the right as far as it will allow. If I haven't messed something up this is concerning to me as I have no further adjustment for timing. Could a defective set of ignition points cause this problem? Any help will be appreciated.
Rick H.

Hi Rick, what bike are you timing up?
650s are 185 to 195 degree for dwell.
Your 22.5 x 8 would give 180. I normally do it on 4 cylinder then go for 47.5 reading.

Low point heel / worn cam would cause you point issue. Are you 100 you have the correct points?

Hi Warren, thanks for the reply. I have a '77 KZ-1000A1. Been a project since last June. Got it almost back together and it runs pretty good on the lift, just want to fine tune the engine and put gauges back on. The left set of points are the ones giving me some grief, the right side came right in for dwell and timing. I thought I recalled reading someplace that an old school tach/dwell meter had to be set on 8 cyl for dwell check with an obtained reading of 22.5 degrees. I am not happy that everything had to move far right to obtain idle timing on left set of points, but right side has lots of room for adjustment yet.

Rick H.

Move the rights points in the direction that gives you adjustment on the left points. Then adjust the mount plate to get the right points correct again.
Regarding the dwell its shouldnt matter as long as its set to a multiple of 4. Then multiple the reading by the number it is set to.
8 x 22.5 = 180 deg. That is a little shy. If you want to use 8 go for 23.5 deg but I use 4 as its a bigger increment on the needle and easier to read accurately.

Just buy a Dyna 'S' .
Set the full advance at 38 degrees and never touch it again.

Thanks Zed1015. Yes I suppose that would be the easy way to go at this, but I have a fondness for old ignition systems, at least those that you can set without running out of adjustment. If I elect to keep this bike I may go with a full restoration, but right now I have as much in it as I paid for it and my financial adviser was becoming concerned at how fast money was going out the door. So I have to chill out for a bit on big ticket items. I took the bike out for a ride today (first time) sans the gauges as I haven't had a chance to mount them yet and the bike ran quite well. I had a small exhaust leak at the copper doughnut and fixed that and all was good. The best thing besides how it ran is that there are oil leaks. The clutch seems a little grabby so I may have to look at the plates to see what kind of shape they are in. Must say this is a first for me going out for a motorcycle ride on Christmas Day! That's almost unheard of in my area. A guy on a Harley passed me and almost twisted his head off spinning around to look at what he passed. Great fun!

Warren: I will give your suggestion a try after I get some new points/condenser. I "think" they are the correct points for the bike. They were in it when I bought it and were in very good shape. Thanks to all....
Rick H.

I have a Dyna S but I keep my old points setup and cam just in case. I rough set the points and plate in the center positions then dial them in using the static method then the timing light.
Steve

You may or may not be aware of the 2 different components that must be adjusted when setting the points, but here's some info that might help..

Before attempting to replace or adjust the points the following is important to understand; timing is comprised of two separate components, and BOTH of these components MUST be set properly if the engine is to run well:

--- The GAP – this is the distance the points spread apart when fully open. This is set by adjusting the distance between the points when they are fully open. The GAP is the element that determines the DWELL. In essence, the DWELL is the number of degrees of points cam rotation that the points are closed and this controls the amount of time the coils receive a charge before firing the spark plugs.

--- The TIMING of the initial opening of the points (the point at which the continuity across the points breaks) controls the precise instant that the coils receive the signal to fire the spark plugs. This is set by turning the backplate AFTER the gap is set.

Trying to set the timing without FIRST correctly setting the gap is a big mistake. ALWAYS set the gap first. The gap is set when the points are open the widest. The gap is how wide the points open; the timing is when the points open. Ed

When setting dwell on Z1 points, we use 23.5 ~ 24 deg. on the 8cyl. scale on our good o'le Snap On dwell meter.

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE

As slmjim & Z1BEBE said for their SnapOn meter, the same is true of the old-school Sears/Actron/Sunpro dwell/tach/volt engine-analyzer. For dwell, you should read the 8-cyl scale and multiply by 8. That means, as Warren said, a reading of 22.5 would correspond to 180 crank-degrees of dwell on an inline-four, or 400/750 twin Kz.

I should also mention, when reading RPM, you read the 8-cyl scale and multiply by 4.

(There is no 4-cyl scale on that particular unit, Actron CP7605.)

Funny thing, the instructions all show the switch to be on the right side, but every model I've seen has the switch on the left side.