Advance weights

[wayne]

Don't forget the advance weights!

My pickup off idle and unloaded revving hasn't been the best. A bit of pop and crackle yet the bike seems fine when driving.

I was rereading member HUDSON's interesting points on the advance weights and decided to check a few things (see below the pics and video for a link to his).


Noticed when I moved one of the weights against the advance plate by hand, it wasn't smooth, had a decided notch. Can't remember ever servicing them.

The grease had turned essentially to glue. I had to make a special tool to get in behind each weight and lever it off it's axle. Noticeable wear on the weights at the contact point with the advance plate. Not serious, but definitely some metal missing.

Thorough clean and grease and happy to find the "notch" completely disappeared. Movement of the weight against the advance plate was smooth.

And so's my unloaded revving. What I should have done is filmed it before doing the maintenance but it was one of those "look-see" jobs that went further than intended. Totally worth an hours work and will be included in my regular maintenance cycle.

What little grease left is more like glue:




Crap photo, didn't realise 'til I saw it on a big screen, but you can see the groove forming where it runs against the edge of the advance plate:





Like I said, would've been better if I had a "before" but:




HUDSON's post on the advance mechanism:

re5rotary.proboards.com/search/results?captcha_id=captcha_search&who_at_least_one=817&what_at_least_one=bushing&when_days=1000&display_as=0&search=Search

[Framitron]

Thanks for pointing out this problem Wayne! I had been careful to lubricate the cam surfaces but never really thought about the weights underneath. I'll be giving them a good cleaning and re-greasing for this riding season.

[Framitron]

P.S. I like your video! Your bike has very good off idle throttle response. That is my goal.

[wayne]

Thanks Al. Same as you, have serviced my points regularly but forgot about the advance weights.

In Brian's post about the weights, he mentions erratic timing if you put a timing light on the bike. I had this shown to me some time ago by a non-RE5 owner but one who's had lots of hands on experience with club racing (Dickie, one of the twins, some members will know the pair). He was blaming (in his opinion) the too small diameter of the advance weight design. It was possibly showing this but also clearly showed what Brian was talking about.

Dickie said something else I've quoted before and found more than once to be true, This could've been an example:

"50% of perceived Carby problems are ignition"

Chased a carby issue on a GSX for ages swapping carb banks (not fun, not much room to get things in and out). Fixed in minutes when it turned out to be a faulty ignitor box.

[timpa136]

If spraying the advance weights with a volatile lube,I suggest leaving the cover open for a time to prevent

oily vapors from accumulating on the points.

[HGH 770N]

Mar 13, 2024 20:44:29 GMT -5 timpa136 said:

If spraying the advance weights with a volatile lube,I suggest leaving the cover open for a time to prevent

oily vapors from accumulating on the points.

Good point, Tim.
The Vapor could also harden the shaft oil seal .
I have seen Wayne’s issue to the extent that the “Bob Weighs “ rattle on start up especially when they have been cleaned and found them too loose on their pins showing oval holes.
I found getting the Bobs Zink plated helps tighten up or bushed out the holes . Also checking and replacing/ re tensioning the springs helps.