It occurred to me that perhaps I wasn’t as descriptive as I could have been on the process of static timing the Dyna. I omitted some very important steps that are crucial to the operation. I have decided to go through the steps as outlined on the Dyna manual and interpret them into more easily digestible instructions.

TIMING PROCEDURE-

NOTE:

A) The left module fires cylinders 1-4, the right module fires cylinders 2-3, and each provides +-10 degrees of adjustment. Moving them counterclockwise advances the timing and clockwise movement retards the timing.

B) All timing adjustments should be made using the advance timing marks which are approximately 1/2 inch to the right of the “F” mars on the advance assembly.

Essentially, the strategy for static timing the Dyna will involve lining up the notch on the engine case with the advance timing marks when our light bulb is lit. Typically the bulb will light up but the marks will be off by a few degrees. We are supposed to be able to rotate the entire Dyna plate until we can successfully match the marks at the same time the bulb lights up, however, sometimes we can run out of room, or 1-4 will line up but 2-3 will be off. In those cases we can individually adjust the modules by a few degrees to compensate.

1) To time the engine statically, connect a 12 volt test light from the junction of the blue coil wires to ground (engine case). Do not disconnect the wires. Use a wrench on the advance assembly hex washer to rotate the engine.

2) Turn ignition switch on. While holding the “rotor” in the fully advanced position (clockwise), slowly rotate the engine forward until the test light turns on. The right hand advance mark for cylinders 1-4 should align with the fixed mark on the engine case.

Okay, so get your homemade test light and connect the positive end to the junction where the Dyna connects to the wiring harness. The junction is surrounded in a clear plastic housing. I had to cut a little slit to fit my alligator clip in there. We are doing cylinders 1-4 first so make sure you connect it to the blue wire junction. Next, ground the other end of your test light to anywhere on the engine. I connected my alligator clip to brake pulley. Then put your key in your ignition and turn the bike on. Put your kill switch to the on position as well. Now here is the weird part.

Here is the weird part…. You have to use your fingers to turn the black “rotor” all the way to the right until you can’t turn it anymore and at the same time use a wrench to turn the hex washer at the center of the plate.

Here is a picture of what the Dyna manual refers to as the “rotor”. This pic is without the Dyna plate on.

It is a little awkward and tricky to do, but its possible. Use your fingers to get behind the hex washer and turn the black “rotor” clockwise while simultaneously turning the hex washer with a wrench to find the point when the light bulb turns on. Remember the “rotor” must always be turned as far as it can and HELD THAT WAY while you turn the hex washer. When the bulb lights up you can then determine which way to turn the plate so that the bulb lights up at the advanced timing marks.

3) If the marks do not align, loosen the screws holding the DYNA S plate to the engine, and rotate it clockwise or counterclockwise, as appropriate, and retighten the screws.

4) Rotate the engine backwards until the light goes out, and repeat Steps 2 and 3.

What I did was loosen the screws, before I started steps 1 and 2. One screw tighten with my fingers was enough to keep it in place while I tried to align the marks with the timing light. I also didn’t trust step 4. I didn’t rotate the engine backwards, I rotated 360 degrees until I got back to the 1-4 timing marks.

5) After 1-4 timing is verified, connect the test light to the yellow coil wire, and repeat Step 2, using the 2-3 timing marks. If it is necessary to adjust the 2-3 timing, loosen the cap screws holding the right module using (the) allen wrench supplied with the kit; and move it clockwise or counterclockwise as appropriate, (.010 inch equals 1 degree) and retighten screws.

After 1-4 is aligned disconnect the alligator clip from the blue wire junction and connect it to the yellow wire junction and follow the same procedure. You still have to hold the “rotor” at the fully advanced position (turned all the way to the right) while you turn the hex washer. This time, of course, you are now timing to the 2-3 advance marks.

Good luck.

Before I begin writing about the process of static timing the Dyna, I will start with some words of warning. It seems that the wires on my particular Dyna were mislabeled.

As you can see in the photo above, the black wire has a yellow band around it indicating that you are supposed to put that black wire in the yellow receptacle in the bike’s wiring harness. The same goes for the white wire with the blue band around it. However, these colored bands were on the wrong wires. The white wire should have the yellow band and the black wire the blue band. Does that make sense? I noticed the mistake when I was testing the spark on my number three cylinder. When I manually turned the rotor and landed on the “F” mark on points 1-4 my number 3 cylinder spark plug fired. This was remedied when I swapped the black and white wires from the Dyna to my wiring harness. Whatever…. it was an easy fix. No worries. Now onto the timing.

My little DIY static timing light worked perfectly. I’ll try to describe the process as best as I can and hopefully better than what is written on the SOHC forums.

My little light was made with two wires. I connected the positive wire to the white bullet connector of the Dyna that was connected to the main wiring harness. The ground wire of the light was connected the the frame of the bike. I chose the the metal from the clutch cable holder. With the three main screws holding the Dyna slightly loosened I grabbed a wrench and slowly turned the crank until the light was illuminated. Then I noted at what point the light turned on.

On normal points you want the light to come on when the “F” is aligned with the notch on the engine case. The Dyna, however, wants us to align the notch to the advanced timing marks which are the two little lines to the right of the 1•4. So the idea is, with the three main screws loosened, you are able to turn the whole Dyna rotor to compensate if your notch does not line up correctly. I not only had to turn the whole Dyna as far counterclockwise as possible I also had to reposition the individual pickups.

Each pickup has two tiny black allen head bolts on either side, loosening these tiny bolts allows for a few degrees of adjustment. I had to rotate these as far counterclockwise as possible to get the correct timing. One thing I should mention… the tiny bolts aren’t metric. Luckily the Dyna-S comes with an allen wrench, but it would have been nice if I could turn those bolts with my allen wrench kit, instead of having this tiny tool to keep track of in my toolbox.

They say the Dyna is great for cold starts, and most likely will start on the first kick every time. After the timing was statically done (induction timing to be done later) I kicked the bike and it rumbled to life for a second. On the second kick it was on for good. Impressive, considering the bike hadn’t been started in three weeks. The Dyna produces a truly hot thick spark, I’m very happy with it. Goodbye points…

Last week I removed the points plate from the advance assembly but didn’t unhook it from the wiring harness. The procedure is fairly easy and a matter of simply pulling the blue and yellow wires from the harness.

Here is a pic of my old points plate removed from the wiring harness. It’s still works and I’m going to keep it just in case things don’t work out with the Dyna-S.

Since I was down there pulling wire, I decided to replace the right side engine case bolts that held the points plate wire in place. The bolts were frozen and pretty chewed up but the metal tabs that held the wire in place were still good.

Brand spankin new Dyna-S.

After removing the spark advance assembly, I had to remove the points cam by twisting to the the right and pulling.

Next, I had to slip on the black magnet cylinder thingy. In order for it to sit perfectly in the advance assembly the spring mechanisms must be pulled out so the black magnet cylinder slides down and engages with the notches

I lined up the number “1″ with points 1-4 on the advance assembly.

Slide the Dyna rotor over it and bolt down with some shiny new stainless steel allen head bolts.

  

Then I slid out the rubber grommet from the old points wire.

Split it with a razor blade.

Placed it on the Dyna-S cable and in the slot in the engine case.

Ran the the cable through new stainless steel allen bolts.

White wire goes into the blue, black goes into the yellow. The red wire is spliced into the 12v brake light wire. I’ll post more pics of the splicing next weekend. The next post will cover static timing the Dyna.

Last week I set out to adjust the ignition timing and gap the points but during my gapping procedure I noticed that there was some pitting on points 2-3. The pitting was significant enough to hinder a proper gapping width. I filed down the peak on the top point but the bottom point had a seriously deep pit. There was nothing I could do to remedy it so I decided to check out how much new points were going to run me. I also figured I might as well get new condensers since I was replacing parts anyway.

But I started to think that instead of buying two new sets of points and a new pair of condensers, plus a dwell meter and a timing light I might as well just get a Dyna-S electronic ignition and save myself the future maintenance.

Currently, there is much debate on the SOHC forums concerning the advantages and disadvantages of the Dyna-S. My opinion is that much of the argument against the Dyna-S has to do with it’s price. The explanation for the dispute against the Dyna-S centers around it’s 20 year old technology sold at the same price it sold for 20 years ago. Honestly, I don’t care how much it costs. For a few more bucks I’d rather have the Dyna-S’s convenience over points and future point maintenance.

I found a great deal at Z1. http://www.z1enterprises.com/detail.aspx?ID=437

Should be here by next weekend. Okay, let’s take out the points plate!

The points plate is held down by three screws. Step 1. Remove screws and throw them away. I have some stainless steal allen bolts to replace them with.

34 years old. I’m not gonna bother putting those back in.

Shiny new allen bolts and washers.

Step 2: remove center bolt.

Step 3: remove washer thingy.

The whole thing will come off, but I only need to take off the points base plate, the advance assembly goes back on.

Pretty clean in there.

The advance assembly. I’ve already read through the Dyna-S installation manual. This little guy will be used with the new electronic ignition, hopefully without any modification.

That’s it. Just have to unhook wires from main wiring harness (under seat) and wait for my part to come in.

Man, its such a blast working on motorcycles.