Won't start need help

Hey all,
Over the winter I pulled both sides of engine cases off. Partially to see how everything looked and partially to replace the seal behind the points area. I have a Boyer ignition though, I also had the twin amals bodies smoothed out and new slides last summer. My issue is now that I tried to start her up for the good weather, all I get is a single backfire every few kicks. The battery is charged well and I put new plugs in today. It used to be a two kick bike! This is still my first year of owning a norton so any ideas you might have could help. I'm wondering if I could have moved the degree wheel without noticing or possibly screwed up the wires on the Boyer when I reconnected them. Anything ring a bell? Thanks

Are you certain you used the correct alternator rotor timing mark, as there are two marks 180 degrees apart?

If you positioned the Boyer rotor with the crank set to the wrong mark then the ignition timing will be 180 degrees out.

Are you sure you lined up the Boyer rotor paint mark with the CCW rotation hole in the pickup plate?

http://www.boyerbransden.com/pdf/KIT000 ... 00017_.pdf

Reversing the pickup plate wires would seriously affect the ignition timing.

On Boyers one must be sure the trigger wires are both hooked up in right sequence connection for magnetic trigger pluses and must ALWAYS *assume* the Boyer trigger leads have broken copper inside intact insulation and you are stuck until your own upgrade or kit installed. Must always assume plugs have fouled too, as for some reason that's happened to me too often, once i've fixed the source of a show stopper - its still no go till plugs re-newed. Not always of course, but enough its worth a try. I've also set up timing on the wrong alternator mark, so now have red nail polish on the correct one and some scratch marks leading up to it so can see when its about to show up and slow my engine turn over creeping on time mark.

I am suggesting the small pilot holes in the carbs, over a standing time they "goo" up, just a guess.

Ugh, modern gasoline just hardly ever evaporates to leave any varnish to matter, but Oh Lordy can even a dry as a seeming bone brand new carb oxide the zine to a proud white crust in holes and bowl bottoms. No solvent but acid or base boils can remove w/o physical method and then at risk of dissolving the carb clearances it not watched over a few minutes treatment. Should be able to start on plugged pilot but not idle down w/o immediate stall is all.

nortoneer850 said:

Hey all,
Over the winter I pulled both sides of engine cases off. Partially to see how everything looked and partially to replace the seal behind the points area. I have a Boyer ignition though, I also had the twin amals bodies smoothed out and new slides last summer. My issue is now that I tried to start her up for the good weather, all I get is a single backfire every few kicks. The battery is charged well and I put new plugs in today. It used to be a two kick bike! This is still my first year of owning a norton so any ideas you might have could help. I'm wondering if I could have moved the degree wheel without noticing or possibly screwed up the wires on the Boyer when I reconnected them. Anything ring a bell? Thanks

Click to expand...

For goodness sake, keep it simple and do not try decipher cryptic prose, unless you're really into puzzles. Like the say in the movie "Seven" "It's just his mind, splattered all over the pages" or something like that. There is no rhyme or reason to madness, it's just what these machines will do to a man if you let it. The darn motorcycle is puzzling.
Anyhow,
Sounds like a timing/weak voltage issue. But don't rule out fuel delivery. As the mysterous one says, the bike will start just fine with the pilot plugged, it just won't idle. Some race bikes don't even have a pilot circuit.

Too True pvisseriii - A Commando it a Real Man's bike, I know because its too often revealed my infantile baseline - cyring and screaming , throwing stuff and runing bezsert out into the darkness howling at the moon, but still had to go back again and again to fix the show stopper. I swear about half the time its Pure Magic of crying online and getting the mental focus of like minded helpers working in the fractal zero vacuum energy fabric of reality to un stick something or align something or reveal something impossible just prior and prior diito'd to infantile state. Rest assured it will be the very last place you find it, how ever many that takes. Ms Peel stumped 5 of the most famous effective Nortoneers we know a few years ago at a rally, that six different things found in frustrating sequence all giving identical symptoms, then the final problem found of fouling behind the Boyer trigger up-grade trigger leads. That only occurred after I passed out moonshine to stone everyone and me to more blank minded starting state, then Rod Rayborn noticed a click on engine turning from points area, ugh. 1000 miles away infantile waves of fear now to show the world at large.

Ummm , Hobot could you show up at Vermont with some of that Shine please.And a stripper.And A.S.A. I will bring a passport and a red Beemer due to distance factor.

If you set the Boyer plate at 180 degrees or so vis-a-vis the case it will spark correctly enough to start. Check if you have spark by turning over the engine with the spark plugs out and one of them touching the cylinder, they will click as you turn over the engine. and if it is dark you will see the spark. If you see the spark or hear the click, then you can probably start the bike. You now have to time the motor correctly with a strobe light. But to do this you have to start the engine. Get a ceramic or resistance heater with a fan to blow hot air over the cylinders for an hour or so. Remove the inspection plug on the timing case and you will see a static degree indicator and there are marks on the "flywheel" one of which will be the one that will appear somewhat close to the degree indicator. With the strobe it will appear within 10-20 degrees within the 30 or so degrees it should be at 5,000 RPM. I think Boyer says 32 degrees at 5,000 RPM. With the cylinders warmed up with the heater, the bike should start, tickle the carbs until fuel overflows. Have a friend start the bike and have him bring it to 5,000 RPM and read where the mark is on the static degree indicator. I just did the job but I forget which way to turn the plate to get to a higher or lower BTDC spark, but you will quickly find out by moving the plate counter clockwise or clockwise and will see if you are getting closer to the right degree for spark BTDC.

Try new gas. Drain the crap thats still in the tank. If its over 6 month old and ethanol based it goes south in a real hurry. Put new premium in it and report back.
CNN

The goddamn pilot jets are blocked by old gas- goo. New viton tipped floats you cheap bastard.Just getting you going . Blasted about town today.

Thanks for all the help everyone, it's very frustrating when it ran like a top the last time I tried to start it.

For an update: before I parked it I cleared all gas out of the system. Yesterday I pulled the jets and did a good carb cleaning. I'm leaning toward the timing issue but will not be able to work on it for a few days. I'll make sure to post an update as soon as she is back up and running. We need some bonding time so I can come up with a name. Thanks again

Sounds like the same thing I did when getting mine back together. I used the wrong mark on the rotor to time the bike. All I would get is a very loud bang out of the pipes every few kicks. Came here for the answer and got it. Went back and checked it out. Sure enough I used the wrong mark. Set it up right and it went off on the first kick. Fantastic!
Double check the timing. It's an easy mistake to make.

Ben

If nothing else works put a pint of Sea Foam in the tank.

Should we start a Sea Foam thread? I asked about it once but got no response. Some of the car forums really seem to like the stuff.

Dave
69S

Hey all, just wanted to let you know that I roughed out the timing this morning and she started first kick! Ran pretty good! It was a real rough on the road kind of timing job, I need to get a stroboscope and try to understand finding proper tdc and the degree gauge on the alternator a little better. But, it's running again. Next step: figure out why my battery won't charge.

Thanks again