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What was supposed to be a nice Sunday bike ride ended up with my head full of doubts, it was so swollen that it was hard to take off my helmet.

40 kilometers before arriving home the bike began to fail, the engine would not climb more than 4000 rpm, it jerked and some fart also sounded.
On the other hand, at idle and without passing the line of 2500 rpm the damn thing was apparently running fine.
So far, it had never failed me in the two years that I have it.
The explosions sounded on cylinders 1 and 4, I disassembled the tank and saw that the coils were not the same, one looked newer than the other, I ordered a replacement set from the Spareparts guys, this week I received it and mounted it.
The failure persists, fuck, what the fuck is going on?
I take off the cover that covers the contact points and capacitors and I don't see anything strange, the guy who sold it to me told me they were new and so it seems.

I start the engine and I see the failure, on the left side there is a nice blue spark, on the right side nothing, just a little orange spark from time to time.
I remembered a video of Allen Millyard in which he brought back to life an engine that had been stopped 30 years ago without doing anything, he only passed sandpaper between the contact points to clean them.

I did the same thing, I rubbed sandpaper as Mr. Millyard did but I don't have his garden, his tools or even his mechanical knowledge so once again my work was useless.

 

The entire ignition system was replaced at the same time.
Could it be a condenser failure?
Can only the contact point on the right side fail?
 At the moment I have seen on EBAY a complete ignition set for 35 euros.
When I change it I need a machine or special tool to adjust the ignition point?

That's all for today, greetings to all.

Seeing a strong blue spark at the points IS NOT what you want to see. It is an indicator of a failed condenser, A failed condenser will give a weak spark at the sparkplug which is what you are experiencing at 2500 rpm light load to moderate load. The higher the rpm and higher the load, the stronger spark is needed to fire the cylinder.
Condensers can last a long time and usually guys will change out their points at 10,000 miles and not change out the condenser and that is a mistake. For a couple of extra dollars, changing the condenser when you change the points is cheap insurance.

The faces on the points are tungsten carbide and simple sandpaper will not clean up the faces of the points. There are point files made specifically for cleaning points, but if you are going that far to fix the problem, then you really need to replace the points. Carrying a point file in your tool kit might get you out of a road side situation in a pinch, but if you change your points before 10000 miles you should never get stuck on the side of the road. Periodic maintenance is always key to good experiences.

6000 miles would be my target mileage for changing the points. 10000 miles at the most.\When changing the points and the gap specification is .012" - .016" , you should set the points to the wider spec (.016") because the rub block that rides on the points cam wears and as it wears, the point gap gets narrower and that can contribute to arcing at the points

I would also caution you from testing the ignition system with the power on and the engine not running. There is always a coil being charged in this condition and you can think of it as turning on a heating element and eventually the element will get red hot. This is what happens in a ignition system with points and eventually it will melt the insulation on the primary windings in the energized coil causing a short in the windings. Electronic ignitions are not susceptible to this phenomenon,

This  Youtube video showing the effect of a condenser  shows what happens at the points when the condenser is not doing its job.

Hope this helps,
KB

Wow!

I interpret everything backwards.

That's how everything goes in my life.

The replacement I ordered has already arrived, one good piece of news and one bad piece of news.
The good thing is that I found a store in the south of Spain that had them and I didn't pay much for them, I no longer have to risk looking on EBAY, ALIBABA, and crap like that.
The messed-up news is that I took the last pieces in stock, I ordered two complete sets and they only had one.  
So I first disassembled the condensers and replaced them, the bike ran worse, only one coil was working, cylinders 2 and 3 were dead.

I don't get desperate, I take out the contact point on the right and replace it with the new one.

The motorcycle is hard to start, it eventually starts but it doesn't run smoothly at all.

I still don't get desperate, now it's time to change the left contact point, I repeat the previous operation and start the bike.
Nothing is going smoothly, I'm starting to get desperate.
I take out the 0.015 gauge and adjust the gap between the two contact points, the bike starts easily but doesn't run well, it's years away from running perfectly, it stutters when I give it gas, my desperation increases exponentially. 



I disassemble the contact points again, look at them and manually reattach them, reassemble them, and calibrate them with their 0.015mm spacing.
The fucking bike starts and keeps coughing, the more I twist the throttle, the worse it works, I stop the engine again, I use the gauge again to make sure that everything is correct, I spray the entire ignition system with contact cleaner.
I get up with my legs sore from being on my knees, as if I was begging for it to work, I walk a bit around the garage getting smoke out of my head thinking that the new parts I have assembled may not be the right ones.

I look at the new ones, I look at the old ones and they look the same to me, they fit in place. 



I try one more time to start the engine, this time from the left side, before I was doing it kneeling from the right side as I was working with the ignition.The bike starts again the first time but it continues coughing, I make a general visual review and I realize the failure...

I HAD THE FUCKING CHOKE LEVER UP.

I lower the lever all the way down and the bike is another one, now yes, the motherfucker works fine philippine, I give some happy gas strokes until I hear my wife shouting that dinner is ready and it's enough of making so much noise, I leave the bike in a perfect idle, stop the engine, mount the ignition cover and the seat and with a smile I sit at the table, today there is chicken thigh for dinner. 

Should be .015" (15 thousandth of an inch) or .4mm. Not sure if your post was miswritten or if you didn't understand the specification.
Once you have the gap set, you need to time the ignition and that can be done with a circuit testing light or if you have one, a timing light.

At least you had the smarts to stay cool and not get frustrated. Good timing when the wife called you for dinner.

Kawboy wrote:

Should be .015" (15 thousandth of an inch) or .4mm. Not sure if your post was miswritten or if you didn't understand the specification.
Once you have the gap set, you need to time the ignition and that can be done with a circuit testing light or if you have one, a timing light.

At least you had the smarts to stay cool and not get frustrated. Good timing when the wife called you for dinner.

006 inch. 0.15mm is the gauge legend.

Now I read in your previous post that you were referring to the aperture between 0.012 and 0.016 inches.
Tomorrow I will re-adjust the contact points, right now they open a little less than half of what they were meant to open.


From your post I got a 'sixteen in my head and automatically thought of millimeters.