Blood, sweat, tears & beers . . .

A tad bit off of the subject, but is it common to have the timing off 180* with a points system? As far as I know the engine wasn't taken a part so how can this happen?? It would be for an 87 Sportster.

Good question. (Anything you want to talk about on my thread is fine. I don't care what it is.) I don't know how it would even run with the timing off that much.

Sorry about that Joshbob.

What's up, Johnny? Nothin' to be sorry about, buddy. Is your bike's timing off 180 degrees? How is that possible and it still runs?

No it is not my bike, a guy that I work with was telling me that his Sportster timing was off 180* which I do not understand how that can just happen as he rode it last year and it ran fine, just a little lean, he had to run with the chock about half out.

Sounds like he needs to get it tuned up & timed. I never heard of a motor running with the timing off like that. Maybe someone else can shed some light on this.

There is a wanna be shop in town here that i would,t bring a bicycle to that told him this. I guess he was pushing out oil out of some place. I just can't wrap my head around this one.

Maybe you could direct this guy to a reputable shop and then he could find out what's wrong.

For some reason the bike is running now after this advise. I wonder if he took the engine apart and just didn't say anything, I will ask him today at work.

Ok, he said what was happening is that the points were opening at the wrong point. There is supposed to be a point when something is pointing towards the front of the bike during a certain point during the cycle. Instead it was point out towards the back of the bike causing it essentially misfire, but run well enough to make it act like it was a fuel issue. I didn't write it down word for word what he said, but anyone have the idea??

Probably the timing marks. I guess he set the points to open when they should have been closed. I still don't see how it would run.

That is what it is. I now remember him saying that he replaced the points recently. This guy would never admit that he screwed up though. Thanks Chucktx and JoshBob.

I suppose the guy doesn't have a service manual for his bike. If a person does their own work, they should have a service manual. My understanding is, if he took the timing plate off, then he would have to retime the motor.
In my case, there is a "timing Tool" for shovels (& Evo's) that will time a motor from the right side and only requires one person to do it. It's called "Rite on Time", is a $100, and claims it's more accurate than static timing. We'll see.

I don't think you need a special tool to set the timing but if it makes you feel more comfortable than go ahead and lighten your wallet.
There are marks on the the crankshaft that you need to align in the little crank case timing hole on the laft side of the motor. That sets the front piston to T.D.C. The points are then set at their respective T.D.C. setting and off you go. She should fire up at that Static timing point setting. You can fine tune the timing from there.
It shouldn't even start if it's 180 degrees off.

That sounds like a good tool to have. Thanks for letting us know about that JoshBob. Yeah I guess that there are two different timing marks on it. One for the front cylinder and one for the rear cylinder. he thinks that someone added the second one by using a punch.

Once I get it running, I'll have to get Mac the Wife to man the strobe light while I tweak the points. Takes two to fine tune the timing this way. Trying to understand why Harley designed it this way. Double fire coil is another thing that makes no sense, at least to me.