Vintage British Motorcycle help

[harmonda]

I'm throwing in the towel on the ignition issues I'm having with my 72 Triumph Tiger. It came with a Boyer Bransden on it. It failed and I replaced it with a Pazon. I got it running poorly then not at all again. I've spent waaaay too much time on it. I'm at the point where I just want to have an expert get it right. The DIY is no longer fun on this one. I have plenty of projects. I just want to get back to riding. Can anyone recommend a shop or individual with experience on these? Local preferably. It has to be someone with positive-ground british twin experience. Nothing is normal about these things.:no:

[Geeto67]

The only place I can think of is in Xenia, Williams vintage cycle.

 

All my friends who ride Trumpets here in CBus do their own maint because there isn't a shop. Columbus is kind of a wasteland if you own a vintage Brit or Italian bike.

 

With Nortons, the Pazon magnetic pickups don't always sit in the right position to trigger because the end of the cams was not always finished to spec (since it is not critical to the stock setup). If you can't get a strong spark that is the first thing I would check - is it getting the right overlap to fire?

 

Have you tested your ignition switch? Take the white wire of the pazon directly to the negative side of the battery and the red to the positive and see if it will start.

 

I assume you have walked through this:

http://www.pazon.com/news/9/SUREFIRE-FAULT-FINDING.html

 

If it will help I can reach out to Tom Graham and some of the other triumph riders on Co-Oh Vinmoto and see if they want to do a wrenching session. They did a few last year.

Edited April 13, 2017 by Geeto67

[Geeto67]

I pinged Tom and he asked:

 

Are the coils 12v or 6? There is a chance you might be running the stock 12v coils in series (24 volts!) instead of running 6volt coils in series (12v) with the 12v electrical system. If your 12v coils are running in series then you aren't charging them enough per cycle and you get a weak spark and hard starting.

[harmonda]

I've run through all the how-tos I could find on the interwebs. The coils are in series. I don't know if they are 12 or 6. But it ran fine with the Boyer unit for years. One day I rode to the end of my driveway and it just stalled there. Never started again until I swapped the ignition.

[Geeto67]

The boyer ignitions tend to break the solder joints inside the box over time. I think they were cold soldiered. In my old commando the boyer I had wouldn't even fire unless I had a fully charged battery so I switched to a joe hunt magneto.

 

It is entirely possible the problem isn't your ignition at all. If your charging system took a dump then the boyer would run until the battery would not sustain it. Then switching to a Pazon wouldn't fix it because the bike isn't charging enough to run it.

 

The boyer is an analog system, I think the pazon is digital. Everything I am seeing says the boyer could work with 12v coils in series as long as draw did not exceed 3amps (Lucas, PVL), but the pazons need 6v coils in series. Triumphs come stock with 12v coils, Nortons come with 6v's and a ballast resistor.

[harmonda]

reluctantly just ordered a pair of 6v lucas coils. Gotta get back on the road.

[Mr. 0]

It looks like it'd be a bit of a drive from you, but you might check out Mobile Cycle Works in Ashley. I had them look at my '71 Triumph Bonneville for ignition problems and a few other things. They fixed it right up for me. They all seemed very knowledgeable especially about vintage bikes.

 

 

From the owner's profile on the site. "John has been in the motorcycle repair business for over 35 years. He's a factory trained Harley-Davidson and Yamaha mechanic. His specialties include H-D's, Vintage/Antique, British (Vintage), and diagnosing electrical issues."

 

https://www.mobilecycleworksinc.com/

Edited April 19, 2017 by mhaserodt
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