I have driven my trike about 50 miles in the last 6 months, the timing keeps jumping....I have had 3 people reset it, but it doesn't last one day. A former Porsche mechanic reset it Thursday evening, and it ran fine but kept backfireing, said I needed to replace one fouled plug, ordered another Bosche plug and put it in this morning( Saturday), damn trike won't start again. I would appreciate ANY help....thanks in advance.......also, sometimes when trying to start it, I hear and feel a very large THUMP, the whole trike jumps.

sounds like it is distributor related...is it tightened down properly??
it's the 10mm nut, not the 13mm

which distributor?

could just be toast or dirty and the plate is sticking.....

BUMP for the Georgia Contingent..!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This may WELL NOT be your problem. Cause this is a worst case scenario. And your bike is too kewl for this to happen.

But if all else fails.................................................

It was the bike "THUMP" while starting that brought back an old memory. I heard and had the same occurence on a guys car that had a rebuilt engine built by a guy named Stromberg.

Couldn't keep the timing straight. it would move all over ther place. It also had a new dizzy.
And during the first half secong of the engine starting. (when it started)
The engine would make this terrible mechanical sound until it was running for second or so. Once it was running. it was kinda ok.......

The sound was like two gears getting parked against each other and then braking free. this all took like a milisecond to make this sound. it shook the whole car. But just for a piece of a second. if that makes sense.

It was a THUMP.

In this case. it was a chipped distributor gear on the crank. The idiot builder had used a fucking sledge or something to put it on. And had chipped the crank timing gear. it ended up killing the dizzy. Had to pull the engine apart and replace the gear.

Check your dizzy as per Mueller. By the way.

Maybe one of the Georgia Boyz can give ya a visit and help ya figure this out...........

Regards,
Clayton

another thing to check, how about your dwell?

no dizzzy grease ( the bosch stuff) equals FAST point wear, and changing dwell changes timing.

but then again a chipped timing gear will do funky things with timing.

i hope it's not a distributor gear... but i'm curious if the"thunk" is coming from the engine or the starter?

if your advance weights are sticking it could cause very erratic timing situation causing all kinds of starting and running issues.
1. too advanced when starting will overstress your starter and something will break.
2. sticky advance weights will be stuck when timing it then spontaneously come loose and make the trike run like crap. BTDT. =-)

i wouldnt drive it until i got down to the real problem/solution. too much advance or retard will make a good engine a recyclable item real quuick.

best of luck.

Dizzzyy issue....

--------------------------------
Thursday the guy took the dizzy out of the engine and he said it looked ok....since the THUMP is behind me, I don't know what is going on but it sounds like 2 anvils hittimg each other broadside..it reminded me of the old crank engines of the 1890s........Jake lives about 15 miles from me, but seeing as how we are both Hardheaded Marines, I don't think we would be able to hit it off....