Why don't old motorcycles need a distributor?

[SportsterDoc]

Great capture m_in_sc.

Man, those were the days - maybe some folks still dwell at the point.

I see what you did there GO

I see what you did there GO
lol - I am sure many here at the Forum have had some bad days trying to set the timing on their ol' cage, or even a multi-cylinder two-stroker. I personally am glad for electronics, sans an "EM pulse burst" (but that thinkin' is pretty out-dated too).

Nah, I gave away my timing lights long before I gave away the engine analyzer/dwell meter.

Just advance until it pings, then back off a degree or two.

Doing so involves test rides/drives, which takes time, but optimizes the timing, at least for that altitude.

Cycle Tuning Unlimited was under 1,000 feet elevation, so no need to further retard for altitude...in other words, no pinging issues with altitude changes.

Even with 300 HP (1982 Chev 350 V8) in my 1973 Datsun PL620, advancing timing at altitude made a noticeable difference...so, I left the distributor clamp just snug.

try 3 sets on a triple lol. . Not hard really, at all. martek was a big rd racer, he made ignitions for quite a while especially for the cbs, kz's, and rds, was an active member of the aircooled rd club last i heard.(about 5 years ago)

It was an optical unit-very reliable. I put close to 40,000 miles on that bike from 1976-1981 with only routine maintenance.