Hitchcocks Forum

Hi guys, I have a fully restored 1947 500cc that can be a bitch to start. After turning the fuel on and priming till petrol comes out the overflow some people suggest finding TDC with the kickstart lever then kicking over. The trouble is I can never be sure Im at TDC, and my bung knee is sharing my pain when I kick in the wrong phase. I have heard others suggest kicking with the decompressor held in and releasing it just as the kick start leaver gets past halfway.

Another question, Ive just replaced the throttle handle and during the process reset the retard / advance cable whats the easiest way to ensure the timing is correct, or put another way does this lever both advance and retard thus moving the points clockwise and anti clockwise or is it one way only. Is it effectively doing what you can manually do on an older car when you unscrew the timing body and move it either way thus changing where the points pick up in the cam lobe?

Any help would be appreciated, I've been reading posts on this forum from down under for some time and seems like a sensible and knowledgeable bunch of people use it.

Bunch of stuff here. First, to,get the kick right turn the engine over until you reach compression. You then let the compression go with the decomp so that the engine is just past the compression stroke. This gives you the chance to give a strong kick through the exhaust stroke and the flywheels will carry the motor over the next compression with enough speed to get the bike started.
Secondly, you need to set the advance lever so that the bike is at optimum advance when the lever is fully pulled in. You should not be able to over advance the bike. Pull the lever right in and set the mag so the points are just beginning to open at the appropriate point (9/16 to 1/2" before TDC on the compression stroke is right for the 350's I imagine the 500's will be 3/8 to 9/16" but you will need to seek further advice on that. ) you can get a reasonable points indication using a cigarette paper trapped between the points and as soon as it will move the points are opening.
Finally, don't flood it till petrol comes out the top necessarily. Each motor has its own routine but I find that if the bike is in regular use a couple of jabs on the float button is sufficient. To avoid backfire set the mag to a retarded setting ( understanding that this reduces the strength of the spark as the mag is providing optimum sparking power in the advanced position) again this is a thing to establish for your particular machine. If you have flooded the bike several strong kicks with the decomp pulled in should clear the cylinder sufficiently to get it firing again.
These machines are pretty straight forward so establishing a routine that works is the answer. Given the same set of circumstances the result should be the same. So alter routines one thing at a time to establish what actually works. Good luck S.

Thanks Simon, that is really helpful. I'll let you know how I get on.