Shaking down an old dog

I agree with you 100% Dave. I'm pretty sure this engine was not rebalanced when it was fitted. I first ran into this issue back about 1978 when I rebuilt a Commando using an Atlas crank. I had that one professionally balanced and it came out great.
If I have reason to take this one apart balancing will be a primary focus.
I used to have a G15CSR which actually was fairly smooth, I think that very rigid frame dissipated vibration better than my featherbed which seems to amplify it.
 
This evening I spent a while making my version 1 finned coil bracket. With luck tomorrow I'll get time to fit it. I'll post a picture when I do.
 
I've been doing a bit of the coil mount, my favorite spot for looks doesn't really give me as much support as I'd like. I've had them off about three times, each time rebending the bracket a bit. Because of all the vibration I think I'll see if I can support the coils in about the center, since I don't believe in welding to a classic frame everything has to be bolt on. I also want one bolt removal for serviceing, no sense in making work more difficult. Good thing I have until spring at the rate I'm going.
 
Today I beat the rain and sprayed the garage so I can get back to the Norton at least for a bit of the time. I still have to reorganize and do some basic wiring on the garage but the elements are now banned to outside.
I think I'll make the new addition a Norton and Goldwing section. and ban BMWs and Changs to the old garage.
 
Today I finished up the actual finned dual coil bracket. I still have to make a resistor mount and rewire the system, as well as make ignition leads.
This is a bit of over engineering as counting all the nuts, bolts, and washers there are 19 pieces to mount a couple of coils.
This is also quite the opposite of the guy who wants to hide his coils as this was a fairly common hot rod Norton thing up my way and I'm featuring the modification.
Shaking down an old dog
 
Tonight I made a resistor bracket and set up my other electronics for wiring tomorrow.

Shaking down an old dog
 
tonight I wired in the new parts arrogantly soldering and shrink wrapping all connections. I'd like to keep going but my wife wants to do mundane chores like shopping and looking at fruit trees.
As you know I may pay for this since soldering in untested parts is like picking up your tools before the test run, this can easily cause Gremlins!
 
After work I redid a number of the grounds making them neater and using new terminals soldered and shrink wrapped. A couple of the chassis grounds were loose in the terminals so if they were not causing trouble they would soon. I also removed a number of barrel connectors as they are potential problem area. I'm trying to decide if I should leave one set of Honda type snap connectors from the pickup to help in testing on the road.
 
That might be a point, I'm thinking the other issue is that I really can't fix much more than a broken wire on this on the side of the road.
 
After she kicked back and gave me a sore foot I ordered me one of them new fangled Tri Spark doo dads.
I'll fiddle with the fuel tank and lines until it gets here. I now have a nice big blue spark with the resistor bypassed. It is not fouling the plugs with the new coil and seems to run OK once you get it started but it is hard to start.
I think the lack of a tickler may cause this.
 
I curious as to where you bought the Tri spark unit.

I found a Boyer unit on craigslist for a reasonable price. Now it's time to
break down the Commando and clean her up.
 
From the Tri Spark website. One of the guys posted it the other day.

http://www.trispark.com.au/

I did a bit of cleaning up today. I boiled a 40 year old petcock on a small burner in clean water and it came apart. My other one was damaged(small leak) so I'm going back in the toolbox to find something to rebuild.
I also wrapped the tank with plastic and fitted a plug to take to the car wash tomorrow.
 
Today I got through the third acid step, the etching on my tank. I removed the covering and so far no paint damage. Tomorrow I'll re wrap it and add the sealer. Sections of old sealer has come out in strips but I can no longer see any in the tank.
My electronic ignition came from Tri Spark today. I can't usually get stuff from LA that quick.
 
This evening I found the tank was still not completely dry. I gave it the old hair dryer trick for a few hours and then re-wrapped it. The temp is below 60 now and the sealer says it should not be used that low. It can wait until tomorrow.
 
Today she got the tank sealed and I rebuilt a petcock from the best of three. I have one with a good screen so I'll use that for a filter and put the pickup a bit high.
 
I installed the Tri Spark today. It's pretty easy with only two wires and a ground. I'm not sure I have the angle correct on the rotor as I don't seem to have enough adjustment. I'll check that tomorrow if I have time after the Clubman show.
 
I moved the rotor to point the magnets at the bottom of the hole the wires come through. Now it times as indicated by the directions.
 
I just fired it up with the Tri Spark and new carbs. Two kicks from cold and one warm. No kick back at all unlike the Boyer.
She isn't really synced and adjusted yet and there is a little unbalance between the carbs. I've only set the timing statically, this is the easiest ignition I've ever set up.
I have a small oil leak to sort and a tiny fuel leak in the petcock area. I used a BMW sealing washer there and it may be tissue rejection. The bike is already much smoother and idles better than with the old Amals.
 
It is starting to look like a bike again. It had been in the garage so long my wife asked if it needed sun tan lotion when I rolled it out to run a bit.
Shaking down an old dog


This is the world's easiest ignition with three whole wires to hook up. I'm using the two 50,000 volt coils with no resistor. This sure seems to have cured my plug fouling and hard starting. I thought I might have to work on the carbs a bit more but this combination seems to work well.
 
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