Dominator 7 spark plugs

I had the same problem with my '54 88. Do you lose compression, when hot, and do you have an iron head? If so, someone may have fitted alloy push-rods. These expand more than the old steel ones, and you lose valve clearance. Set clearance to 5 thou inlet & 8 exhaust (Thanks to Phil Hannan, who informed me of this). If you have magneto ignition, the condenser may be breaking down, a quicker, and probably cheaper, solution to a mag overhaul is Thorspark electronic ignition (check it out on Sussex Motorcycles). John.

Previously wrote:

Can anyone help with an errant Dominator 7 which starts first kick, runs very hot and refuses to start when hot. I know the normal possible problems (magneto windings or capacitor breaking down, ignition timing out, carb settings etc) but any other suggestions would be appreciated, many thanks, Rob.

Hi Rob,

if you find mag issues, here is another option: if the capacitor is the trouble, there is an easy, do it yourself fix! You dont even need to remove the old capacitor, try the Brightspark easy cap. I love mine!

Here is the website:

http://www.brightsparkmagnetos.com/

Skip Brolund

Skip, Brightspark say you should remove the old failed capacitor. Can you get away with leaving it and just fitting their new one? Intrigued... Gordon.

Hi Gordon,

thanks for asking.Actuallyone of the keybenefitsof this is the fact that in most cases the old capacitor is left in place, or as it says on thewebsite"quick snip method", in some cases (like on the MO1 mag-dyno) it is really difficult to un-solder one of the coil leads withoutdis assembly of the armature, so a "condensectomy" is in order. My K2F has the old cap in place & I never took the armature apart, easy job. Theirwebsitehas tons (tonnes) of info & detailed instructions with lots of photos to make the job easy. If you are thinking of doing it, the guys at Brightspark are reallyhelpful, they will even loan out the special pullers needed to remove the bearing races & slip ring if required ( only if you need to split the armature). I believe they will even recharge your magnets if you like. Super nice guys with a couple of test bikes that they have put huge mileage on the Easycaps & no failures! As a bonus, should you manage to ruin the capacitor somehow, it is now in the points cover right below the points. Seems like a no brainer to me. I have heard a few rumblings from one or two guys about how the cap. should be in the back of the armature nearer to the brass end piece. I supposescientifically, in electrical theory, they mightpossiblybe correct (I am not an electrical engineer, so I cant say for sure either way), but the fact is theyhaven'thad failures on the company mule bikes, I haven'theard of a single customer complaint yet. For 13 GBP, how can you go wrong !

Skip Brolund

Just another comment, I was told a long time ago that the Lucas capacitors were not of the best design, or material even for the era in which it was made (paper & flux?) and the normal shelf life was 10 years before they started to self destructed internally. I was told this by an old, ex-Brit bike shop owner here in the USA. He said the same was true with the condensers (capacitors) for coil ignition bikes. He used to laugh at the guys at the swap meets (autojumbles) buying NOS (new old stock) Lucas capacitors that were 30 years old, new in the box, that probablywouldn'twork at all, or very little.

Maybe someone here can confirm (or deny) this bit of info?