Hi all.
The saga isn't quite finished after all. The bike was all setup and ready for testing on the road prior to taking for its MOT, even had the bike in the drive and my helmet on the wall. I was warming it up when I noticed smoke from cylinder 4 exhaust. On checking pot 4 was hardly running, so it was a 3 1/3 cylinder Honda.
Back in the garage I checked for a good spark and No.4 was very weak compared to the others. Unfortunately I couldn't swap 1 & 4 as the leads wouldn't reach, so I stripped off the coil to have a look. On inspection the HT lead to 4 was very loose in the coil body. The smoking gun!
Decided, after a false start with DSS pattern coils, that I would go with a full Boyer Bransden electronic kit with the micro coils. This would also replace the mechanical advancer that was previously freed off after being rusted solid.
When the kit arrived it was clear that the fitting of it was a bit DIY, with no way of mounting the coils and instructions to cable tie the control box to the frame. Sorry that's not going to happen on this bike, a slightly more elegant solution will be required.
This is the story in pictures:
These are the micro coils. They look to me to be the same as fitted to a standard Hinckley Triumph?
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My new DSS supplied plug caps are perfect for the job.
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As I say a bit DIY, you even have to solder your own HT lead fitting on.
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I reversed the original coil mounting brackets and drilled out the threads. If I want to go back to standard I can use a longer bolt with a nut. I made up some aluminium pieces and bolted them in. I then mounted the coils to one side, and the control box to the other.
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Had to make loads of patch leads as the bullet connectors were not really Honda size and all were loose. Got there in the end though.
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The result was a really fat bright spark on all four cylinders. Strobed the timing at 4500rpm as per instructions, which is a bit unnerving, but all went well.
Guess what, still a 3 1/3 cylinder Honda. The real culprit was a blocked idle jet in carb 4, the whole exercise was just chasing a red herring
. Goes to show, even when you are sure the problem has been found it's still worth double checking everything. "O well" at least the bikes now done to the best spec possible, and the dodgy HT lead has gone. I'm sure that would have come back to bite me at some point in the future.
Hopefully now I can road test it and get it MOT'd and registered ready for spring.
Cheers all.
