Roxy and Astrid: Advance and Rectify

Kicked things off using the makeshift plastic cover to stop the oil spray while I checked Roxy's advance.  It worked ok at first, but the warmer the engine got, the more oil started to drip out the bottom.  Really need to come up with one that screws in flush against the alternator cover, especially at the bottom where the oil finds its way out.

Also, since I was doing it solo, I had to rev the engine using the throttle cable, which was tricky.  It was easy enough to rev, but hard to hold it steady enough to then switch over to check the advance.

Also, I know see how convenient it would be to have a timing gun that shows RPM and Advance at the same time.  With the Actron, you have to toggle back and forth.

But in the end, I got a decent reading, I think.  At 4000 RPM, it looks like the advance was just hitting the first advance mark, or maybe a bit retarded from the first mark.  Either way, it appears the advance mechanism is working fine.

And she started on first kick, and idled fine.  I adjusted the idle slightly, and left it at about 1300-1400.


After that, I checked the idle RPM on Astrid.  She was a tad high and I lowered it down to the same 1300-1400 range.  She also started on first kick, and without hesitation.  Somewhat ironic that this recently resurrected engine runs at least as well as Roxy does.  Though I guess there's really no reason she shouldn't.

Since I still had some time, I figured I'd get rid of the old selenium rectifier while I was at it.  So I snipped off the wires (yellow and pink) right below the rectifier itself.  Wearing disposable gloves, I removed the rectifier and bagged in (adding the gloves as well).

The bike wouldn't start with the rectifier removed, which I figure is expected.  I bought the replacement rectifier at Radio Shack (#276-1185), and it looks pretty straight-forward to wire it up.  If she still doesn't start after that, then we'll have to troubleshoot.