Joe Hunt magneto upgrade

For those who have a rear mount magneto as will fit on the early fastbacks & other early Norton twins. Timing is much easier with a way to turn the armature to find exact points opening at 28 deg advance before tightening the mag sprocket to set the timing. Look at the photo and you will see an allen screw I install in the center of the cam lobe. Without it its very difficult to time. I've tried to get Joe Hunt magnetos to supply their mags this way but they won't so I've been doing it myself. The silicone gasket is another upgrade and allows you to make make adjustments without having to change and re-seal a paper gasket. No leaks. .020" thick washers act as spacers so the 1/32" thick gasket gets crushed .012" (just right). Its a shame that Norton re-designed in such a way to make it difficult to retrofit, because they sure work great.

Nice mod.

Mine is converted to allan heads on the points adjustment but I hadnt thought of one on the end of the cam lobe.

I actually do not use Hunt mags and have a Morris mag amature in mine. I also use their larger (and rather more expensive) condensor becauae I have found it is far more reliable than the Hunt component. I change it every year of racing and havent had a problem for abut 6 years.

I think my friend and I were Hunts beta testing department back in about 2002 when they went to a newtype of amature shaft using rare earth mags. The amature shaft was made up of about three pieces screwed together and the magnet mounting assembly had about 15 pieces screwed together. It was piece of junk and we both had ignition slipping and changing about 5 times. This was on machines which have since run another 6 seasons and taken about 8 NZ club titles since then. I rang Hunt to talk to them and the guy was extemly rude and told us we could ****** off. One of the high points of their "quality control" was when I found they had needle punched the undersized shaft to get the bearing to fit. These were brand new mags bought directly from Hunt in the US.


I can see from their website that they have now designed it properly like the Morris mag amature. But frankly after the way they screwed us over I would sooner push the bike than buy any of their products. The worse performance from a supplier in 30 years and had they been located in NZ they would be in the Small Claims Court.

I see you are one of their suppiers Jim. I know you have good products and have been very happy with the service and things I have got from you. (No Hunt products). My advice to you is to watch them carefully.

Another couple of useful mods. A good way to fast swap to a new condensor during a race meeting is to mount a second condenser outside the mag which you can wire in when needed via the kill switch line. Then you just cut the wire to the old condenser.

The nut under the mag is the hard one to reach. On a lath make up a long shaft with the nut on one end then a slim section which can fit under the mag and then a hex head on the end. You can then tighten the nut very easily. The two top nuts are easy to adjust with slimmed down ring spanners especially if you have cleaned up the mag body around the mounting point. You can also make up nuts with heads one size down from standard.

These sorts of mods really pay off at a race meeting if you run into trouble.

John

John

Great review of the "wonderful customer service" from Hunt magnetos. Sounds almost as good as Megacycle cams customer service (which is the absolute worst). I had a problem with them too but now Rodger is the new guy at Hunt and he is easy to get along and their product is working well so its all good now. I test every mag before I send it out. From what you know of the Hunt and the Morris - are they basically identical now?

Whats the part # of the bigger Morris condenser and does it fit inside the Hunt?

Hi Jim.

The part number is P6R Condensor R type US $ 26.25 (which is an impressive sum of $ for a condensor) but I have never had one fail and I have had an original small Hunt one fail. Its on this page.

http://www.morrismagneto.com/retail.htm

Having said that however the condensor in your photo does look the same size as the Morris P6 R condensor. It just fits inside the Hunt cases and by the look of your photo that condensor is larger than the ones which came in our 2002 ish Hunt magnetos. Im not sure of the exact date we bought them. I am not in NZ these days and cannot check my records. We had several problems with those Hunt ones including the shafts unwinding, one shaft snaped, a seal failed and filled the mag with oil, the lobes werent symetrical and the timing differed about 6 degrees side to side, one shaft was machined undersize and the shaft needle punched to get the bearing to fit.

Im very pleased they now have a new person who has restored their quality because Hunt magnetos had enjoyed a great reputation down here for 30 years which is why we bought them. I think the old man would have been spinning in his grave if he had known what was going on!!!

I have only seen photos of the new Hunt armature. It does look like the Morris one with a spun stainless cover. I had to get Morris to make my new armature as a one off because normally they only do HD magnetos - or at least they did back then. The sprocket taper and thread lenght was non standard for Norton but since we were making a vernier sprocket that didnt matter to us.

These days my mag has a Hunt body and Hunt aluminium plate on which the outboard bearing and points are mounted. The remaining parts - armature, seals, bearings, coil, points and condensor are all Morris mags. Im pretty sure every part is interchangable except for the sprocket taper and thread on the armature which Morris may have changed by now.

I change the condensor about every year, the points when needed, the coil I think once in 8 years and it has worked perfectly for at least 150 races and 8 years.

Regards

John