points sparking 550 F1

[Philh550]

Hi
After days of fiddling, my own fault using pod filters I am told, I have finally got my 1976 550 F1 running ok. Upped the main jets to 110 but left the 38 slow jets in after the 40s seemed to make matters worst. Plenty of attempts to balance carbs swop jets around and checking electrics.
I did notice a spark at the points gap on 2 and 3 none at 1 and 4.  Cleaned and checked gap but still sparking all the way through rev range. I found the old condenser and changed it for the brand new one and although the points are still sparking the performance was immediately improved with he condenser swap.
After a quick glance at the internet it seems this is acceptable for the CBs of this era.
Should I try to remedy this fault or just enjoy the last bit of riding till the winter months arrive ?

[peterengland]

Mine does the same, doesn't seem to affect it. Cars of the same era used to spark at the points all the time as well.

[Philh550]

Thanks Peter, will keep an eye on it. Strange only one set is doing it.

[deltarider]

At the breakerpoints a tiny bit of sparking is normal, excessive sparking is not good and indicates a bad condenser. See
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3cuvGVwnjI
Left condensor (1+4) is bad, right condensor (2+3) is good.
Another thing to be aware of is that the forked connectors at the back of the breakerpoints are not intermittently (due to vibrations) grounding. When installing make sure these forked connectors do not touch the baseplate. Especially breakerpoint 2+3 can ground easily as it has a crosshead real near.

[AshimotoK0]

A lot of pattern condensers, even ones made in Japan like Daiichi, have a bad reputation of being crap quality.

[Philh550]

Thanks Deltarider. My 'bad' one is like the good one in the video with no sign of a spark on my 1 and 4 side.

So Ashimoto leaves me with the dilemma of which make to buy as a replacement. At the minute I have an old one fitted that is battered and dirty and possibly original that seems to be working fine. Looked on line and the prices range from £6 to £16 per condenser, question is does price dictate quality ?

[Trigger]

Make sure that all the screws are tight and look at the spring on the points, one of julies bikes had a bad starting problem and that was a crack in the spring which caused the spark to jump 

[gtmdriver]

There will always be some sparking at the contact breakers but it it's excessive then it's likely to be the condenser.

[AshimotoK0]

Thanks Deltarider. My 'bad' one is like the good one in the video with no sign of a spark on my 1 and 4 side.

So Ashimoto leaves me with the dilemma of which make to buy as a replacement. At the minute I have an old one fitted that is battered and dirty and possibly original that seems to be working fine. Looked on line and the prices range from £6 to £16 per condenser, question is does price dictate quality ?

Battered one...  if it works fine I woud it leave on. ND (Nippon Denso), Hitachi or TEC are the best types.