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 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.

My CB550′s breaker points need to be adjusted before summer riding. I started this morning but didn’t get to finish due to lunch and a light drizzle outside. What I did discover was a small typo in the Clymer Repair Manual. The point gap is indicated as .016 inches which translates to .4mm, but evidently this basic math has eluded Clymer’s copy editors. Hopefully their 21st edition will reflect an accurate metric conversion. I tried to find a contact email address for the publishers to let them know, but my google-fu skills must be lacking this morning. I can’t seem to find one.

More on this tomorrow.

According to the Clymer manual there was supposed to be a gasket between the cover and the housing. I didn’t find one. What I did find was that someone in the last 30 years had been in here and stripped all the points adjustment screws. It was time to finally break out my impact driver that I have been dying to use.

I can’t say that I fully understand the reasoning behind correctly gapping the points, but I am very good at following directions and apart from taking out the stripped screws it was an easy job.

Even with a variety of bits and an impact driver I still had trouble getting these out.

But I didn’t give up.

I replaced about four screws with new ones I picked up at my local hardware store.

The Clymer manual states the gap between the points should be .03mm – .04mm. I used my spark plug gap tool and found a gauge that was .035. I did noticed that one of the points does need to be either replaced or filed down. The points for 2-3 are uneven. Gapped correctly on front side but not rear.

I didn’t bother putting the phillips head screws back in. I got some 6mm allen head bolts and put those in instead. Eventually, when I start pulling stuff off the engine to polish, I’ll get a allen bolt set for the whole bike. These people have a set that is already polished. http://www.stainlesscycle.com/catalog/

For now, I don’t mind spending .75 cents to replace a few bolts here and there.