Vintage Dirt Bike Q & A

First wiring.

If I want to run a single headlight, no switch, no battery, how should I do it?

What I think could work would be to splice the YELLOW/YELLOW WHITE from the stator together... run them to the YELLOW on the Rectifier, run the PINK from the stator to the PINK on the rectifier, and then run the headlight + to the Rectifier RED and run the headlight - to the Rectifier GREEN. Does this seem right?

Second Timing.

I get that retarding the timing means to widen the gap, and advancing is to make it smaller... however, at what point on the flywheel do I do this? Should the gap be set when the points are open their widest? Or at the "F" or "T" mark?

I get that "T" means TDC in the stroke... so that makes sense to me... however the manual online doesn't give specifics to this, it only says that if you're using a test light that the light should go out (dim in this case) when the flywheel is lined up to the "F" position, when the points just start to open.

My main thing is I want to retard the timing to get my top-end back... the manual says between .012 and .016 gap is required to be at 20 degrees BTDC... so if you look at the flywheel... if it's 360 degrees... is the distance between F and T 20 degrees?

That's the only real logic I can pull from the manual... any help?

_________________
I drink your milkshake!

Ok... figured out the headlight! Still fiddling with the timing.

_________________
I drink your milkshake!

My take on this is that correctly adjusted points, opening at "F" (20 degrees BTDC), should have a gap of .012-.016" at their maximum point of opening. Just turn it to the maximum opening, after first setting the timing, and measure the gap.

Follow up with a timing light to verify. Not sure what you will gain by retarding the timing, but you could always paint your own "F" mark wherever you want it. Personally, I would expect the performance to decrease by retarding timing.

The allowable service range is .008-.024". Anything outside of this indicates worn points, that should be replaced.