Joe Hunt magneto photos (2012)

Anyone have any good photos of Commandos with the Joe Hunt magneto mounted on the side of the timing cover? If so please post a pic.

These seem to be the most reliable ignition systems and definitely have the hottest spark. They don't fail like electronic ignitions and you can eliminate the battery. After replacing failed electronic ignitions, dead batteries and troublsome Lucas mags its a relief to have something that does what its supposed to do without crapping out.

I keep thinking about getting one, but mounting it on the original mag pad. I already have the intermediate gear to do it. I don't know if anyone has done this before. I don't like having it hang out there in the open.

jseng1 said:

Anyone have any good photos of Commandos with the Joe Hunt magneto mounted on the side of the timing cover? If so please post a pic.

These seem to be the most reliable ignition systems and definitely have the hottest spark. They don't fail like electronic ignitions and you can eliminate the battery. After replacing failed electronic ignitions, dead batteries and troublsome Lucas mags its a relief to have something that does what its supposed to do without crapping out.

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You should search, there is one guy with a nice setup. He's written quite a bit about it.

I love seeing pictures with them too. I would really like to see a picture of my bike with one on it.
Next winter. I'll be lookin for a swinging deal, Jim. I keep meaning to get you a couple photos and a story line for your site.

Well, this isn't a Commando, but it is a Commando engine. Better than no pictures at all. This is what my wideline looked like when I bought it back in 1984. I immediately converted it to an AHRMA racer, and took the Hunt mag off because I was worried about crash damage. I ran points for quite a while, with a fixed timing, ball bearing points plate, but eventually fitted an ARD electronic mag. Sure enough, I crashed and destroyed the ARD. Still, I liked it so well that I replaced it with another ARD, which is still working.



Ken

Here is a pic of mine







the first pic the Joe Hunt has been on the bike now for over 18 months and has never missed a beat and alway fires up on the first kick, the second one is a short movie from the frist kick after the rebuild over 18 monthsa ago.

Not in a Commando frame but.

Ashley

lcrken said:

Well, this isn't a Commando, but it is a Commando engine. Better than no pictures at all. This is what my wideline looked like when I bought it back in 1984. I immediately converted it to an AHRMA racer, and took the Hunt mag off because I was worried about crash damage. I ran points for quite a while, with a fixed timing, ball bearing points plate, but eventually fitted an ARD electronic mag. Sure enough, I crashed and destroyed the ARD. Still, I liked it so well that I replaced it with another ARD, which is still working.

Ken

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You should have kept the Hunt mag on and crashed it instead of the rare ARD mag.

One thing that amazes me about my Hunt mag is the way it explodes to life befor the kickstart reaches the bottom of the swing. I never had that luxury before and I think its the new powerful rare earth magnets.

bwolfie said:

I keep thinking about getting one, but mounting it on the original mag pad. I already have the intermediate gear to do it. I don't know if anyone has done this before. I don't like having it hang out there in the open.

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It can be done but takes a lot of machining of the case and takes a different camshaft. A lot easier to just mount it on the side. I'm working on making the side mount more secure and offering them at a lower price than others.

bwolfie said:

I keep thinking about getting one, but mounting it on the original mag pad. I already have the intermediate gear to do it. I don't know if anyone has done this before. I don't like having it hang out there in the open.

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ran out of funds but when I get back on track...
mkiii-cases-run-mag-behind-the-barrel-t7317.html

Fullauto mentioned he runs one behind the barrels also. I'm not sure how he set his up.

Joe Hunt still lists the one they call pre-unit for BSA, Tri, & Norton. It is part#: 1278. http://www.huntmagnetos.com/store/Magne ... html?id=78

Can you supply these Jim?

For the behind the barrel mag we we would need:
- the old intermediate gear with the dual sprocket
- 2 chains (one to the cam and one to the mag at the back)
- the rear distributor drive sprocket from a pre 72
- pre 72 intermediate shaft as I think the intermediate shaft is also longer to accommodate the dual chain sprocket
- pre 72 timing cover
- since I haven't done this mod I'll mention that if the timing sprocket doesn't align to the cam sprocket we may need the old style pre 72 cam as well. I'm not home so I can't check this out.

OR: a pre 72 Norton

It may be possible to drill the 72 and later timing covers out and shorten the pinion shaft boss to work with the duel chain and long pinion shaft but I'm not too sure everything would clear as I haven't done this. Easiest to use an old style t-cover. I definitely want to try this some day.

This photo shows the differences in the newer and older t-covers with regard to the depth of the pinion shaft. I really don't know if you can use the 72 onward timing cover with the dual chain set up.

Bravo.

Notably Wood thought the Mag was worth running the early cases , Be intresting to see full details required to
set up the late cases for the rear placement Mag .

You wouldnt believe how well your headlamp works too ,
at full rpm directly hooked up to the Alternator .

bwolfie said:

I keep thinking about getting one, but mounting it on the original mag pad. I already have the intermediate gear to do it. I don't know if anyone has done this before. I don't like having it hang out there in the open.

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Like Jim said, it's been done before, by several people, but it is a bit of work. Both Ron Wood and George Gjonovitch (HPI) modified Commando cases to mount the mag in the old location, Ron with Lucas mags and George with ARD mags. I ran one like that with an ARD mag on a 920 until it broke the cases at Daytona. Unfortunately, that was before digital cameras, and I don't have any pictures of the mag on the engine. I do have this picture showing one of George's bikes with the ARD mag.



Essentially, you have to put a bit of weld on the top rear corner of the timing side crankcase, and then machine the case to look like the mag mounting area on an Atlas. You have to run the Atlas style timing gear train to drive the mag. You can modify a Commando timing cover to fit by machining the inside of it to clear the double sprocket intermediate gear, and sealing up the original points area. You can either use an Atlas style cam, or make up an adapter to use the Commando cam. With the ARD mag it was also necessary to grind both the crankcase and the mag for clearance.

This picture shows the old style ARD mag, which was pretty much the same parts as the old Joe Hunt mag, with the adapter plate and mounting hardware to fit it to an Atlas or modified Commando timing side crankcase.



These two pictures show three different Commando timing side covers modified to clear the Atlas timing chains and sprockets.





This shot shows the timing side parts (some with duplicates) required to fit the mad to the Commando cases. In the bottom right corner you can se a cup shaped bit of aluminum and a bolt made by brazing a nut onto a shortened Commando advance unit bolt. That's what I used to adapt a Commando cam to the Atlas timing side bits.



Ken

Thanks for a great post Ken, that really clears things up. I take it the cam chain alignment is ok with the old sprocket set and I see everything clears inside the newer timing cover after taking down the pinion shaft boss.

Much Appreciated .

RennieK said:

Can you supply these Jim?

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Yes I have both types of Joe Hunt magnetos and at a very good price with some better fasteners, silicone gasket, timing tool etc that no one else offers.

They are at my website
jsmotorsport.com

Does anyone know anything about this old magneto that was once used on a Norton race bike?

I just saw that picture on Norton Manxman, SportSpecial, and racing motorcycles on Facebook.

Its funny my bike turned up on this thread. I was just reading to get some pros and cons to having this on my bike (pictured above) and came across this thread via a Google search.
I bought it a couple of days ago with this magneto installed. Its funny, the first thing my Norton riding friends say to me is: "the first thing you need to do to it, is get rid of that magneto!" After a day of riding on this Norton, I have come to the conclusion that something is really right about the formula at work on this machine. It has had the Joe Hunt on it for the past 15 years and had supposedly never failed the previous owner, doesn't leak any oil (and it has oil in it) and as a testament to the Joe Hunt, it always starts on the first or second kick, which is pretty unheard of for most British bikes on a cold start.

I still debate taking it off, replacing it with a Boyer and selling the Hunt. I too worry about what would happen to the Hunt if I crashed the bike. I'd be out quite an expensive part.

What to do...

The idea is not to come off in the first place, you be very happy with the performance of a Joe Hunt I had one on my Triumph for 9 years and 250.000 kys without any problems with it, thats why I went for one for my Norton, I have had a few slides down the road and the Joe Hunt has sirvived both time with only damage to the top cover $35 to replace, parts are cheap for the Joe Hunts and they are tuff buggers and have the hottest spark than any thing else and I have owned my Norton for over 36 years now and the best thing you don't need a battery and the faster you go the better the spark, I would never go back to electronic ignsition and I have been through 3 of them over the years.

Ashley