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[stinkwheel]

I've been neglecting my late Indian 350 bullet classic because of my 612 project. I'm due to go on a big run on it next weekend so I thought I'd best address some issues I've been having. Primarily (other than the seized rear brake cam), it was an increasing latchiness to start. This has been getting progressively worse over the last couple of months and I'm sure is, in part, due to a horribly worn carb body.



Being methodical, and because it runs really nicely when actually going, I decided to clean out the slow running circuit (again). I also lightly filed and gapped the points (gap was fine), checked the tappets and treated it to a new sparkplug. Went to start it and spent a good 20 minutes kicking it over to an occasional fire. I was on the point of stopping and having a go at the timing when it finally fired up then sat and idled.



Issue 2 was an odd graunching noise/feeling on the kickstart which I'd just about convinced myself was my imagination or a little piece of grit stuck between it and the gear lever. When it finally fired up today, this noise/sensation carried on and was undeniably loud, horrible and coming from the primary chaincase. It was with some relief I didn't get a load of aluminium powder out in the primary oil nor the anticipated cascade of broken primary chain rollers (yes, it was that noisy).



Anyway, it turns out the alternator rotor had come loose and was wobbling and rubbing on the stator. Luckily it had neither worn right through anything nor had it destroyed the wodroffe key. A clean up and reassemble later and it's all looking fine.



Prodded the kickstart and away it went first kick. It seems like this has fixed it. However, I can't think of a mechanism by which a loose rotor would make it tricky to start, other than maybe a slightly increased resistance to engine rotation. Any ideas? I'm not complaining mind, it's just something that will bug me.

[Bullet Whisperer]

Bullets with points ignitions will start easily, even with a flat battery, firing up straight off current from the alternator and I wonder if perhaps the battery on yours has been low or dead, but with the rotor touching the stator, perhaps some of the current generated was shorted to earth, thus reducing the power available for creating a spark. I am no electrical wizzard, but there could just be something in it?

[stinkwheel]

I was wondering about something like that. If there was an intermittant short, the act of rotating the engine could have also been shorting out the current just as it was needed for a spark.



From the look of it, it's been loose for a while, there was a reasonable layer of baked-on muck/oil residue on the crank taper. I can only assume it must have been throwing itself against the nut and squaring up inside the stator once the rev speed increased and the key has miraculously hung on in there preventing it spinning up. I have no idea how the nut hadn't precessed off, it was finger tight and I'll have covered hundreds of miles since I first noticed that roughness on the kick start.