Hitchcocks Forum

Hay norm
You seem to be my last hope, I have restored 13 bikes over the last 35 yrs 2 of them 500 bullets, and all turned out ok, this is my first enfield twin, I have all the correct books etc, and am reasonably shure all the parts are correct, the books say the cam plate must tighten the timing chain going left the, can you tell me if the falk that slips over the off centre cam goes to the left of the slave gear or to the right of the gear, no one else seems to know other than to tell me I must have the cam in wrong way, it can only go in 2 ways, even our hosts told me just to go with my gut feeling as the book is probably wrong,

Sorry Bluey can't help, I know you can sort of put it both ways but I always work out how it is supposed to work. I just went and looked at an Interceptor motor with the timing cover off but that has had the end cut out of the quadrant because it looks like the chain is too short. If nobody else has an idea I'll pull the timing cover off a Super Meteor motor in the morning and pull the chain so I can see how it goes. I have to split the cases on this one anyway.

Thanks Norm its been holding me up for weeks now

Bluey.

The correct way to assemble is with the lower slot in the adjusting plate open end pointing towards the front of the engine and the adjuster spindle (the thin long part of the adjuster cam) to the top.

If this does not work for you then you may have incorrect parts.

Blue as Dennis says there must be something not right because it fairly straight forward. I know in the book it shows the correct and incorrect way. I hadn't looked closely at this Inter motor here before yesterday but there is obviously something wrong with it, what I'm not sure. Going from memory I think there is a slight difference between the early and later ones, may not be but I just have this feeling. If this has held you up for a couple of months then something is obviously not right What motor is it?

The WS manual show it all. What it does not tell you is that you really do need to remove the stud so that you can maneuver the cam plate into position.Then fit the stud, just make sure that the eccentric on the spindle is at the bottom, and that moving the adjustment plate to the left tightens the chain.


Take your time with the adjustment as the chain tension varies due to cam lobe load.

Hi again, well thanks a million fellas I finaly got the cam plate working to the left, I ended up having to take the stud out as Tim suggested no way it would go in otherwise, the stud seamed to be the whole problem it was just jamming the cam plate, so I cleaned the stud and plate up with a file as well. I would never have thought I would have to take a stud out, bit of an unusual design to say the least.Norm the bike is a 1959 RE chief with the American spec engine no magie it runs on a coil ignition pretty much a 1961connine spec eng with a M series gear box, right thanks again for all your help the whole bike will be finished to morrow I will let you know how it goes

Nice one Bluey, I didn't post earlier because the others nailed the problem. I always remove the stud now, a friend of mine has actually replaced the stud with a bolt to make the job easier. Some engines are a real pain to assemble, some just go straight in, it must be a matter of tolerances. I too have a Chief project, well two actually! so I'd love to see some pictures when you're done?brREgards, Mark

Good to hear Blue, sometimes it is the silly little things that will trip you up. Anyway while we are discussing this timing issue, I want to strobe time this Meteor in the morning and I wonder if anybody knows how many degrees of advance I should set it at. I have fitted Pazon ignition on this as well. I strobe timed an Inter a while ago and I think I took a stab at 28 degrees, any thoughts?

Hi Norm, I would try 35 degrees BTDC, at full advance, it would certainly be close, if not dead on. Cheers, Paul.