today we finally decided to check the timing. i've owned this engine for 3 years and in that time its been in 3 different frames. to begin with this was my first v-twin so i had nothing to compare it with. but it ran well all the way to the red line. yes it burnt a little oil but the engine was strong enough.
the engine was fitted to the spondon frame 18mths ago when my bike totally rebuilt after a big accident. again the engine felt ok revving to the redline good for 150 even with me on it.
by this time a lightened flywheel had been added along with many other trinkets. but on two occasions i had the bike dyno'd the results were worse than poor. and no matter how many times me and carl played with the carbs, we just couldn't get it to fuel properly.
over the last winter i decided to stick the engine in yet another frame, put together another bike and sell it on, as if i'm honest, i'd had enough of it.
this rebuild started well enough and other than the long cold winter holding us up, the bikes been 95% finished and ridable for the last 3months or so. but that nagging problem was still there, only this time it was worse, the bike just didn't want to rev past 6.5k
i must stress that in all this time tne bikes engine had never been apart, the only work carried out was a lightened flywheel and a new clutch being fitted.
no matter what we did the bike wouldn't rev, swapped coils, different plugs, different ignition pick up, lots more carb work, we even put the bike back to standard settings other than the race end cans, but still nothing, we were very pissed off.
so back to today. the final throw of the dice....JUDGEMENT DAY!
it was time to check the timing, we knew of bikes that couldn't rev past 6.5k being 180 degree's out on the timing for some time, but being in the past my bike had happily revved to the redline, i was reluctent to believe that it was the timing. but something about gaz's bike at the dyno day stuck in my mind, the dyno guy said gaz's bike had been set up to get around the possible timing issue. and it got me thinking, had my bike been set up the same when i bought it, remember it had never performed well on a dyno. and as we'd tried everything else.
before carl turned up, i'd already taken the fairing,tank,seat, rear cam cover off, loosened the rads and oil cooler, and taken out the rear plug.
there was problems, the gen cover has a c/f cover on it, which didn't want to come off, the plan was to swap it with the one on the spare engine, so i'd taken that off aswell.
so carl turns up this morning and its already getting hot, we set about it, then we hit our first snag, one of the bolts on the gen cover is rounded...
so the plan to swap the gen covers went out the window.
after much swearing we managed to get the c/f cover off. and the crappy allen key bolts followed without a problem thank god.
then we hit snag number two. theres no markings on the lightened flywheel....
how can we set the timing without the markings. i was even contemplating driving down to tonys to borrow a tool to remove the flywheel, but after a phone conversation with mr mon a solution was found. so game back on, by now it was roasting hot......
carl set the timing and we then set about putting the bike back together, but in the afternoon heat it was hard work.
finally it was time to start her up, after so many false dawns, i was not confident, had we made it worse, will the problem still be there.
so here goes, pushed the button and not much of anything, the bike was turning over but not firing, it sounded dreadful. what had we done...
after many attempts to start it, we whipped the tank off to check the vac pipes, alls well. so we tried again, it fired but ran like a pig. after it had warmed up a bit, although it didn't want to idle by itself. it was also popping and farting more than carl....
i decided to give it a rev, i must admit it revved cleanly to 8k, now the bike at standstill had revved to 8k+ before, but when ridden it wouldn't go past 6.5k.
so i was still sceptical. although it revved very cleanly. we were still a bit down, we decided to go for a test ride, out past canary wharf where i know i can get high up in the revs. it was still baking hot and me and carl were wilting in the heat.
so off we go. i couldn't get past 6k because of traffic until we exited the limehouse tunnel and around the roundabout with the esso petrol station. but when i did get her going....OH MY GOD!!!!
it was a rocket ship, i couldn't stop smilling, we'd done it, after all this time, the bikes timing had been out by 180 degree's.......
i couldn't believe how fast the bike was, even now some two hours later, i'm still smiling....
what a relief for me and carl. now its running a little rough because of the fuelling, but once thats tinkered with and the carbs are synced/balanced i'm certain it will run spot on, it might even be even quicker...
as i said earlier, i'd never ridden a v-twin before owning this one. and although i'd ridden tonys briefly, i couldn't compare it to mine because tony's has been heavily breathed on. i'd also ridden carls briefly but because i'd been short shifting my bike for a while now, carls bike didn't feel much different until it got onto the mains at 6.5k, then it was quick.
3yrs and the sodding timing was out, unbelievable.
i'd like to thank carl, i can't put into words how he's helped me, even tho i've had to put up with his moaning along the way.....
thankyou carl, for all your help, your a true friend.....
so thats it, i'm a very happy bunny. we'll sort out the fuelling soon enough, and next saturday it will be on the dyno. i can't wait, i'll have to re-adjust to the speed thats for sure....
As for not revving past 6,5k, that is not strictly true as it would but it would stutter and struggle past and creep up slowly VERY SLOWLY, so was not like a limiter as such. Otherwise 180 degrees out would have clicked with me a lot sooner. As I have not experienced an engine 180 out, I had nothing to compare to. So as far as I was aware, once it hit 7k it would behave a like a limiter and just not pass that point at all.
