Douglas experts

[Blingrims]

Hi guys, I have managed to get my dragonfly running and do a few trips , that thing turns heads !

Anyway I have now fitted the Honda coil (hidden away) to allow me to run a wasted spark setup which was suggested on here, it is excellent. I am however still looking for someone to do a couple of light jobs on the engine such as optimise my timing/carb and replace a few gaskets. Could anyone recommend anyone on the south coast? My next major job is a new clutch as the current one is slipping, is there a good supplier and work instruction for these?

[Red]

Pleased you found the fitting of the Honda ignition coil works well and certainly from my experience resolves "most" of the ignition problems for a very modest cost. As to ignition timing I set mine up at 1mm before TDC using a tool I made up from an old spark plug, then took the bike out on road test and made some final adjustments to get the best performance. I know you should in theory use a degree plate to measure "accurately" the 5 degrees before TDC, but I am inherently lazy and couldn't be bothered to remove the front cover.

[Blingrims]

Sounds like a good work around. Do you have a picture of the tool or method?

[Blingrims]

Can anyone help with a specialist name, or clutch supplier please?

[eddie]

Jon,
        Before doing anything else, try washing the clutch plate in petrol. To do this, block the drain hole in the bottom of the bellhousing, then pour about a pint of petrol in through the clutch inspection hole. Then lift the clutch and operate the kickstart about 20 times - this will spin the drive plate and wash away any oil that might have contaminated the plate. With this done, remove the plug and drain off the petrol. Finally, make sure you re-grease the thrust bearing - about 3 shots should suffice. This dodge has worked successfully for a lot of owners.
  If you have to resort to replacing the clutch plate, the only source of supply is the Club spares department, but they probably only stock the plate as a kit of component parts to be assembled by the buyer!

  Regards,
                 Eddie.

[Red]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. Attached is a photo of the tool I made for checking TDC and also for setting a basic ignition timing point. All it is made from is an old spark plug from which I have removed the ceramic insulator and cut off the earth electrode. I've then used a suitable bolt with the end rounded off. With this in place I can then rotate the engine (carefully) to find TDC. If you have a dti available so much the better. Once TDC is established I have then marked the rod and then also put another mark above this at 1mm, so when I next rotate the engine I stop at the second mark, which is 1mm before TDC, which I reckon is about 5 degrees. Not necessarily very accurate, but even using a degree plate I am not sure I would get it any more accurate. Remember there is no TDC mark anywhere, so you have got to establish TDC, so unless you've got the cylinder heads off you are still stuck with measuring piston movement via the spark plug hole. Once I've got a basic setting I then went out on road test and made minor adjustments at the distributor until I got what I thought was the best performance. The marks on the distributor clamp plate are I reckon about 3 degrees each of distributor movement, but remember that equates to 6 degrees of crankshaft movement, so you are only moving the distributor a small amount each time - clockwise to advance the timing and anti - clockwise to retard. Before you go out on road test it is a good idea to mark the distributor clamp plate and engine case with some white paint so you know where your basic setting started from. Hope this helps.

[Blingrims]

Eddie and red, excellent advice as always, do you have any follow up advice on how to inform the wife that our Saturday plans just changed?!