Hitchcocks Forum

Hi guys---------- what do you make of this}------- http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221690123396? ... EBIDX%3AIT -----------

Haven't looked at it Alan but they have several models of Electra in India, and an iron barrel is one of them, I think in 350 only though

Alan - Hi ! - its a home market 350 model - sold in thousends over there - badged Electra - but its a 350 iron barrel motor with a 5 speed box and a horrible mix of old style alternator and CDI ignition which always seems to break...

Just to point out that ours in the UK were the Electra X, not the Electra. The X makes a big difference!

Hi Wayne---thanks one and all for the info.---------- "X" marks the spot then ?? .. LoL

Sorry----forgot to say to Norm}-- Yes, it's a 350..

Wayne, somebody must have complained, the later ones used the same TCI ignition as the export Electra-X! A

Adrian, weren't they the called the Thunderbird, they had pretty much a 350 Electra X motor in them. The early ones also still had the piston pumps not the gear pumps and a pickup shaped like a hook fitted as the crank sensor inplace of the spacer behind the rotor and some little black box which nobody seems to know how to wire apart from some of the Indians. This is the reason in the case why the wiring loom is included in the sale

Norm, the engine in the ebay listing is definitely a late 350 right foot shift 4 speed iron barrel Electra with TCI ignition, though left foot shift 5 speed versions in both K/S and E/S were available towards the end. Early 4 speed versions had the CDI ignition.



The bikes you're thinking of are the AVL engined 350s, the first of which was the A350 Machismo which came out as a right foot shift 4 speeder with CDI igniton, drum front brake and a Dell'Orto carb, as well as gear oil pumps from the start. Later Machismos got the 5 speed left foot shift box, disc front brake and 24mm CV carb, still with CDI until the E/S version which has TCI ignition, very similar if not identical to what was fitted to the Electra-X. The Thunderbird was, I think, the last of the pre-UCE 350s to be introduced with the five speed box from the start, "custom" styling, drum or disc front brake and in CDI K/S or TCI E/S versions mirroring the last of the 350 Machismos.



Just to confuse things the name Machismo was also applied to another home market 350 Bullet with the classic engine from the late '90s, which would indeed have had piston oil pumps. There was also the 500 and later 535 Lightning which was really just a classic Bullet with wonky styling.



For my sins, I am the owner of a rebuilt 350 K/S AVL crank (rebalanced for an Electra-X piston), a spare set of Electra-X crankcases, head, barrel and piston and the makings of a CDI ignition set-up. The rest is all on ebay. Hmm, where might this be heading? Scary. The Snidal workshop manual (expanded edtion) has all the wiring diagrams needed, so I shouldn't have to bother our Indian friends.



Regards,



A.