Manual advance

The 'Tight wire advance' is normal on Nortons (and a bit of a nuisance if the cable breaks !) However, it will depend upon the magneto and the points housing being original but I'd suspect that your observations are correct. What year is the bike ?

It varied over the years but on mine, which has the inlet cam driven by the exhaust cam, rather than direct from the crank pinion and thus a clockwise magneto (viewed from the drive end), the A/R cable enters next to the cylinder and relies on a tight wire to hold full advance.

Hi a simple check to carry out would be to run the engine at tickover and move the lever, when the tickover speed rises it is advanced and when it slows it is retarded, this will show you where advance and retard positions are regardless of if the original magneto is fitted or not.

You should be able to watch the points with the points cover off. Rotate the engine until the points are about to open, i.e. rotate until the poinst open, then back off a bit. Best done with the spark plug out and in top gear, just turn the rear wheel. If the points open when you apply tension, you are advancing the ignition.

Personally, I don't like tension advance, though my Rudges have it. The ignition can retard without you noticing, until the lack of performance alerts you. A cable break fails to full retard too which means having to ride home veery slowly. It's easy to find an alternative points housing at autojumbles and convert the MO1 magneto to tension retard.

Hi Gordon,

If your Easy Two is a 1950 model then the magdyno should be a "slack advance" type, that is when the ignition is fully advanced, the spark control lever is hard against the stop and the control cable is slack. That way if the control cable breaks the ignition isn't suddenly retarded and your engine's power doesn't go south. The engine can still be started on full advance if one doesn't mind getting bitten by the kick starter, just don't lock the knee joint.

Regards,

Albert

Previously wrote:

Thanks for the replies on this query. I'm am now sure that I have a 'tension advance' system. I have also learned that there are 'tension retard' systems as well and this is probably the reason for the conflicting information which I have read.

Gordon

Hi- I agree with Albert-My 1950 ES2 is as Albert says. Regardless of which way yours may be rigged, look at the rotating points and the ignition is advanced when the facecam plate is rotated fully against the stop in the opposite direction of points rotation- i.e.: clockwise point rotation/anti-clockwise(counter-clockwise here in the states) rotation for facecam for advance and vice versa. This places the ramp in a position so the points open sooner rather than later- Hope this has been of some help- Richard