Mag vs Distributor? Indian Chief

[Fastfred116]

I am looking for some advice. I have a 1947 Mag Indian Chief. It has the original RM Mag on it but I have had nothing but trouble starting and running it. I was thinking of taking it off and putting it on a shelf in case I ever sell the bike. My question is would you install a distributer or a Mag? If I go Mag I would get one from Moris magneto. If I put on a Distributer I would problem, get a repop from jerry Greer. Also, the bike is a BM ( Bonniville Motor) with all the goodies like a Bonn6 Carb ……. What would you do? I am looking for reliability more than performance. But both would be nice

[tfburke3]

I would suggest having the mag serviced .Vahan dinahanian(spelling?)does mag service and I think still advertises in the mag.
You could probably convert to distributor much cheaper but you lose that originality and the cool look of the right side of the motor with no distributor.
You will also need a longer advance cable.
Plus if you live on homestead with no electric to charge a battery ,magneto Ignition would be desirable.

Tom

[tgarcia]

There is that old saying of live by the mag die by the mag. I run a distributor with pertronix ignition and its great. No problems at all and a good choice of you like to ride them a lot like I do.

[T. Cotten]

I am looking for some advice. I have a 1947 Mag Indian Chief. It has the original RM Mag on it but I have had nothing but trouble starting and running it. I was thinking of taking it off and putting it on a shelf in case I ever sell the bike. My question is would you install a distributer or a Mag? If I go Mag I would get one from Moris magneto. If I put on a Distributer I would problem, get a repop from jerry Greer. Also, the bike is a BM ( Bonniville Motor) with all the goodies like a Bonn6 Carb ……. What would you do? I am looking for reliability more than performance. But both would be nice

Before you throw money at it FastFred,...

Are you sure the hard-starting is the ignition's fault?

My philosophy is that if all things are in order, either ignition should do well.

My experience is hard-starting is most often a combination of other things, but then my mag man lives near!

...Cotten

[pisten-bully]

Is that rotor part of the issue? ( ...looks like a broken tab?)

If you decide to have it serviced you could talk with Mainely Magnetos in Maine. (http://www.mainelymagnetos.com/)

[PaulCDF]

I have never run magneto.

But. . . if I did have a magneto bike and testing indicated it was not working properly

1. I would explore having it serviced, rebuilt.

Is this a recent issue or has it always been difficult to start and run?

As Cotten said is everything else in order?

[Tom Wilcock]

I think the tip of edison magneto rotor 004.JPG the contact spring is missing. Here is a picture of a good rotor.

[PaulCDF]

Fast Fred;
I meant to mention in the AMCA Magazine archives 2011 Vol 3&4 there is a two part article on Tracking down magneto and condenser failures.

I ran a Thorcap condenser last year on my 46 with distributor and it ran well, believe Thorcap can be fitted to magnetos.

[tfburke3]

Changing over to dist. ignition will. also require some wiring changes and a battery ignition switch.
Tom

[Carl Olsen]

My 37 chief was born with a magneto M in the serial # and I loved the look of the big magneto in front of the engine, but alas the magneto took a turn for the worse and does not work any more. I was thinking about the looks and reliability of the magneto, and I realized that the mag had a set of points already, so I wired the points from the mag to a coil under the mag and now I have my points and coil ignition, plus the looks of the gnarly mag. Be aware the points in the mag are grounded and you will have to isolate them.

[PRG]

Howdy chaps,

Carl’s conversion is the way to go, have done this in the past, preserves the aggressive/functional look of a mag with the more ready starting of points/coil. Upside of a mag: no reliance on marginal charging system, but that point now rendered moot these days by 2 brush conversions and electronic regulators. Downside: a mag is a spark generator and requires rpm to do so and that can be most challenging at start up as this machine has no compression release like, say, a Vincent, wherein one uses the inertia of faster spinning flywheels to dramatically ease starting. I’d say off hand if you’re a big young whippersnapper with a strong leg, and/or don’t plan on stopping/starting often at events like upcoming Bike Week then retain that mag in stock form. Though big, I’m now easing into the fossil category and will be taking my 83 year old points/coil machine to the above event and saving my knee for another day.

[tfburke3]

One drawback of the mag is setting the timing.When it set,thats it.Want to try slightly more advance,take off pipes and cam cover and re pin or key mag gear.You can slightly retard with tthe advance cable adjustment but compared to a distributors ease of adjustment its way more complicated.
Tom

[tomfiii]

You can do some minor timing change by turning plate , it only can move just a little. Sometimes they start and sometimes it takes forever.

[Fastfred116]

Thank you everyone for the responses. I apologize for the confusion. You are 100% correct with all the reasons why I have had problems. I used a old photo here. Things i have done. 1. Install a new cap. 2. Installed a new rotor. 3. Installed new points. 4. Adjusted the chain guard so the kicker didn't hit. 5. Installed new wires. 6. added a Thorcap to the condenser. .... I was able to get it running but it took a lot of kicks. 20-50. I'm a big fat guy. It will not end well if i keep trying. But a friend called over the weekend with a idea I want to try. To trick the mag. See if it runs with a battery.

[tfburke3]

There is no trick but you can convert the existing mag points to a dist.battery configuration as mentioned above in Carls conversion.
You will need an external coil and batt.switch.
Then you have the advantage of the battery and added coil while retaining the bulky ,but original,mag with its 3 extra gears,hard to service bearings,hard to adjust timing, magneto.
Curious where this external coil wire hole will be drilled to enter the mag or is it wasted spark using only points,requiring a dual coil.?
To me this conversion would be more of a temporary fix,until the mag is repaired,or bike converted to distributor.This conversion is not possible on some mags like my bosch.
Are sure the spark is still weak?
Tom

Have you confirmed visually that the spark is still weak? Or are you just going by hard stating.
TOm