Bought an XS650B, 1975, 15K miles, it had electronic ignition fitted. Didn't run great but I was happy to fit new air filters and to rebuild the carbs, in fact I was amazed it ran looking at the crud inside the carbs ( photo added).
Anyway, put it back together and it still had an erratic tick over, which got faster as the engine warmed up. I started adjusting the mixture using a colourtune, still not great, so today, before I took the carbs off to fit vacuum barbs to the inlet stubs, I thought I'll check the stuff I should have checked before attempting to adjust the carbs, you know, compression test, valve clearances, ignition timing. Compression test, 150 psi both cylinders, next check ignition timing...Well, whoever had fitted the electronic ignition, had it running fully advanced as a starting point, destroying completely my presumtion that someone who decides to fit electronic ignition would know what they're doing.....Now runs sweet as a nut with a rock solid tickover
Anyway, put it back together and it still had an erratic tick over, which got faster as the engine warmed up. I started adjusting the mixture using a colourtune, still not great, so today, before I took the carbs off to fit vacuum barbs to the inlet stubs, I thought I'll check the stuff I should have checked before attempting to adjust the carbs, you know, compression test, valve clearances, ignition timing. Compression test, 150 psi both cylinders, next check ignition timing...Well, whoever had fitted the electronic ignition, had it running fully advanced as a starting point, destroying completely my presumtion that someone who decides to fit electronic ignition would know what they're doing.....Now runs sweet as a nut with a rock solid tickover
