dyna s timing

is there a secret to this? i have tried everything...no good. i've adjusted the plate every which way and nothing. the wiring is connected correctly and i have good power. i put the same carbs back on my 900 that it had with the points and they seemed to work. now it pops thru the #3 carb and the occasional loud pop out the exhaust. i messed with this all morning to get it running...i'm stumped. if any of you has figured this out or ran into the same problem, i would love to hear from you.

Help is on the way!

First, remove your #4 plug. Stick your pinky in the plug hole or a pencil or something and when you feel a bump, you should be at TDC for #1 & #4. Make sure the T mark on your mechanical advance lines up with the mark on the case.

Now, you have a rotor thingee that is provided by Dynatek. Look at it carefully and you will see an identation the size of a pencil eraser in the black painted part. This is the magnet. Put the rotor on so that the magnet is on the left side as you look at the advance. It can only go on one of two ways and if on backwards, guess what? Backfires and no starts...

OK... got that settled... Now check your wires. There is a black and a white wire coming off your pickup coils. The left pickup is the 1/4 pickup. Trace it through your splice to one of the coils. Trace the spark plug wires from that coil to #1 & #4 spark plug. I know that the other wire must be connected correctly if you have the first wire right but go ahead and check it. Check the splices you made.

Check power at your coils. Make sure you have 12VDC at each coil and correct this issue. The wire that feeds your coils will also be spliced into the Dyna S. There are two skinny red wires that travel up WITH the signal wires and Dyna gives you a blue splice. Throw this splice out and tie the coil wires to the two skinny red power wires off the Dyna S and solder the connection...

OK... let's see what else can be wrong. 900? That does tell me what type mechanical advance you have. There are two advance curves with different marks used on various Z/KZ models. MOST of them use one but some of the early bikes (Z1) used a different advance curve. What does that matter? The timing can't be made right if you have the early advance. You need a different rotor where the magnet is placed a bit differently. I THINK that Jeff put a good write up on this on his web site in the Dyna S section. You would think Dynatek would do this but Jeff is seriously customer oriented. Take a look at the write up on www.z1enterprises.com for examples of the two mechanical advances and which rotor is needed. They carry different Dynatek part numbers and only the later one is distributed with a sale.

OK... still haven't gotten to the timing part. The two pickup coils are just screwed down at the factory and they don't do live testing. After you checked all the previous babble, get an inductive timing light. Put the clip on #4 plug wire. Connect the power leads to the battery. Loosen the 3 five mm phillips head screws and start your engine. Turn the mount plate until the
F mark for the 1/4 cylinders aligns with the mark on the case. OK... rev the engine and make sure your advance advances.... at about 2500 rpm you should see full advance; that is, rotation of the advance all the way.

Once you have that done, shut it down. Tighten the three screws. Put the inductive pickup on #3 plug wire. Start the engine. Loosen the two bitty allen bolts that hold the pickup. Move the pickup slightly to get the F mark on the 2/3 side of the advance to align with the mark on the case.

Can't do it? Keep in mind that the two pickups are 180 degrees opposed to each other. This being the case, you can ROTATE the 1/4 by using the small allen screws on the pickup so that you can set up timing for 1/4 more in the middle of the adjustment slots on the backing plate and try and set up 2/3 again. I have had to do this almost every time I set one of these things up.

Still can't get the timing? Time to call Dyna as you may have a defective gizmo.

sounds good, thanks! i will try it out and let you know what happened..

well, everything seems to be in order, all wiring connected correctly. i cannot get it to run to check the timing with a light. just pops and whatnot. still will not start. i decided to get rid of the factory wiring connectors from the coils and solder or splice like you recommended. i checked that the piston was tdc and it was. even if the timing is off a little, it should at least start, right? i will try some more things and let you know.

Post edited by: arobsum, at: 2007/01/21 18:00

Three possibilities...
1. your bike has another problem that is not allowing the bike to start
2. you failed to check one of the items I noted
3. you have a bad Dyna S

Since you are the man on the scene, you are the only one who can really tell us if the bike might have another problem or you didn't check one of the things I mentioned. If you think the bike has good enough state of tune and you DID check the things I mentioned, I would call Dynatek support and see if they can help troubleshoot the problem as it well may be a bad Dyna S.

It is possible the bike is so far out of time (ignition timing) that it won't start BUT you could try and set the pickups using the "static" method using a timing light. It explains how to do this in their directions which are also available through their web site.

wiredgeorge wrote:

Three possibilities...
1. your bike has another problem that is not allowing the bike to start
2. you failed to check one of the items I noted
3. you have a bad Dyna S

Since you are the man on the scene, you are the only one who can really tell us if the bike might have another problem or you didn't check one of the things I mentioned. If you think the bike has good enough state of tune and you DID check the things I mentioned, I would call Dynatek support and see if they can help troubleshoot the problem as it well may be a bad Dyna S.

It is possible the bike is so far out of time (ignition timing) that it won't start BUT you could try and set the pickups using the "static" method using a timing light. It explains how to do this in their directions which are also available through their web site.

i did indeed fail to check an item you noted!! i printed out your instructions and went back to work, found the problem. thanks!! why is it the the harder we look, the more likely that the problem is staring us in the face? an obvious, simple fix. thanks again george!! you are a lifesaver.

Post edited by: arobsum, at: 2007/01/22 23:07

Please O Enlightened One, tell us what you found wrong so I may be so enlightened when I install mine now that I have some part time work and the cash flow for parts will be starting again! :woohoo:

pumps wrote:

Please O Enlightened One, tell us what you found wrong so I may be so enlightened when I install mine now that I have some part time work and the cash flow for parts will be starting again! :woohoo:

ditch the old factory plugs and splice or solder all the wiring like george stated...fixed me up like a champ!! i just got back from a little tour...everything seems to be in order! my rt coil was intermittent, sometimes it had power and sometimes it didn't. it wouldn't work but when i would check it would show voltage. i cut off all the old connector plugs and soldered everything.

Dynatek provides a blue connector to splice in their Dyna S and the coil wires. It never works well. While you can put bayonette type connectors on and plug them together, this connection is critical and should be soldered and covered with heat shrink. You can always cut wire and re-solder if you need to remove the Dyna S.

Possibly I have tried to take on too much at one time but really wanted to get this stuff done. Had time so I dove right in. I have read and read info on this stuff until my head hurts but tomorrow when I get off duty I want to get this right.
First I bought A dyna electronic ignition, new dyna coils, new plug wires and all the stuff to do the coil mods with the relay.
Yesterday I got the new coils, the new ignition, the re-power mod with the relay for the coils all done (soldered- ain't pretty but functional) and at 930 last night was trying to set the timing until I ran the battery down.I was tired and had to get up early this morning to come to work so I quit and put on the charger.
I don't have any of my stuff here but as I am recalling the issue was what the timing instructions meant. I had the light hooked to the #1 plug wire and as my buddy cranked it seems as I recall I had rotated the plate on the 3 screws to the middle for starters, couldn't get it started. When I very first tried it fired right up before I put the tank back on.#4 was missing(pipe not warm)so we remembered we better set the timing.Then when we tried to actually get the light on it and set the timing it wouldn't start.I rotated the plate both ways to try it and nothing-cranked only.
I tried to look at Z1s instructions on their site but couldn't find it. I'll have more info when I get home as I having trouble remembering EXACTLY what my issue was..could get the marks right.Stand by.

Post edited by: pumps, at: 2007/04/29 18:49