OK so I thought I would play around with the ignition timing. Most bikes are timed quite conservatively with the idea being they will be able to run OK on any crap fuel that is available wherever you are on the planet. The reality is most fuels (over here at least) are pretty good and you can advance the timing to make the bike actually run better.
So, I could have bought one of these suckers off eBay for about $50:
But where's the fun it that? Also, I cant adjust it - it's fixed at 4 deg.
So, I opened up the cover here:
And discovered the backing plate is screwed in place with 2 screws (the black ones):
Which means I could slot the holes and rotate the plate which will adjust the timing.
So, first thing to do is to find a suitable spot to mark the current (stock) position timing:
This way if everything goes pear shaped you know where you started from...
Then take the pick-up off and remove the backing plate (that green shit is Mr Yamaha's thread locker)
Now scribe some degree marks on the plate in the direction you want to go (OK - it's not that tidy....):
Now drill two holes beside the existing mounting holes:
And file them out to create 2 slots:
So here it is back in the stock position:
And here it is advanced about 4 degrees:
Button it all up and we're done. Probably took about 30 minutes all up - and the benefits were immediately obvious. Started first hit, pulls much smoother through the low and mids and generally runs sweeter.
And it cost nothing to do.
Just a note here - this would be pretty hard to do on an Intruder or any other bike that has the pick-up triggered off the stator rotor. But any bike that has an ignition plate you can slot it and experiment.
(putt putt putt)
