Congrats!!! You hit the nail on the head sir. It is a bit tougher on the TMax to do what you did with the TT ign.

How do you adjust the timing to just before detonation? I put a Powerhouse (Daytona Twin Tec) module on my '97 and set the static timing according to the instructions. I've tried to set the "precision" timing (35 degrees BTDC@2000 RPM) most recently today, however I can't see the timing marks at all with a timing light through the hole with or without a clear plug. I also have a kick starter. I've only been able to kick it over cold once. I've kick started it several times warm but even that is hit and miss. I think timing is the issue but I can't be certain. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Kick starts, requirements for dead revolution with electronic IGN ,that means the sender picks on the first crankshaft revolution, I had dana2000i electronic IGN in my bike and I installed a kicker but could not start bike kicking latter found I needed to reprogram danna Ign module I went and purchase a IGN with dead revolution now it fires up,one prime kick ,next kick starts & I made sure for single fire IGN new coil now bike runs great and starts😂😎

You are very welcome. Thank you!

I appreciate that! Thank you.

Thanks 👍

I appreciate that! Youre welcome. Thanks!

thank you.

Sorry to hear that. Thanks for watching!

Awesome thank you!

Glad you enjoyed it

It certainly was. I still have one on my Ironhead.

Glad to help! Thank you very much......likewise. stay safe.

Glad it was helpful!

My pleasure

Glad you liked it. Thank you!

Did you reach out to Scott @ Fitzgerald Motorsports?

@@KevinBaxter Just sent another email he's down for maintenance again . I'll try again this week and if that doesn't work I'll call. But I don't like to disturb people wile they are working . I remember how busy I used to get . Back before I retired.

@@KevinBaxter I did and got a hold of him this afternoon. He notice the part number changed as of 2009 on the lower triple tree we believe this means that the lower 49 mm clamp is probable bored for the 2% angle. He said he would look into it some more and to call back Friday afternoon. The e-mail you had listed cam back UNDER MAINTENANCE every time so I did finally call him. Thank You again for this reference.

😆 Well...to develop a base from scratch anyway. From there, its much easier.

Thank you very much. Have a look at that main jet or use a programmable ignition...that can be solved but if its very minor, may not be something to be overly concerned with.

@@KevinBaxter years ago i just backed off timing a few degrees, but lost some power. my understanding is that the M8 is full advance, all the time. no power loss throughout the rev range.

It's not at full advance all the time. That wouldnt be possible. 4V heads are more efficient and often will require less timing. If you backed off the entire table, you are selling yourself short. Find knock point, back it off 3 to 5 degrees, and that'll be pretty close to MBT provided AFR is maximized.

@@KevinBaxter Thanks! I guess a better description would be maximum advance all the time. That's why you're the one providing the information lol. And the 4 sparkin plugs combined with a more efficient head design give a more efficient burn. Can't wait for the next episode. Learning is fun!!!

i think you are trying to say that the ignition timing is optimized for all operating conditions....which unfortunately, also isnt true. Remember...their base maps have to work all over the world, with all sorts of different fuel, and environmental conditions. Tuning is about optimizing your specific bike to your conditions. Impossible for that to be done in a production environment.

Hey Erik. Thank you for being a part of the channel sir. It's not a bad choice at all. I havent run a bunch of them so I cant give a broad perspective. Look at what youre running now, compare the specs. Im sure youve seen the "how to pick the perfect cam" video. The difference in specs will tell you what to expect when compared to your current cam.

45 for the pilot should be fine at close to 2.5 turns out of the idle mix screw. Stock needle with 1 .020-.030 shim should be fine, and stock or one step up on main should be good too. Good luck. Thanks for the kind words.

Great idea sir! We will tackle this in a future video.

Thank you sir!!! Best of luck! Keep us posted on your progress.

325-350 head temp is getting in dangerous territory...can drop valve seats.

load and rpm govern timing. so if you are at the same load and rpm in both those scenarios, the only other variable is air/fuel ratio and throttle position. Try adding a little fuel to accel enrichment in that precise spot you see the knock. May just need a little more fuel and that wont affect the higher gears as much.

yet....trans vent. #1 issue. As for idle....no. TC should idle around 900 to 1000 for the oiling system to work best and help keep the engine cool.

@@KevinBaxter Okay... I'd say it's doing that! Seems a bit fast, for an HD. No "lobbing" there. Thing idles more like my car!

lol Drum Beat Boom Boom Boom Boom , Boom Boom Boom Boom . I will look at my Plug today after doing the timing last week . I was running 110 yesterday passing lane had 3 semi trucks going up a steep hill and its a 1/4 mile passing lane I overtook them all at 1500 feet left in the safe zone .

2 deg can make a huge difference. would only cause damage or problems if 5 is too far...detonation. there is no magic correct number....you have to give the engine what it wants.

@@KevinBaxter all testing -tunning was real world by riding myself and comparing. thanks for input, keepin the info comming

and I get 30mpg which sucks. I knew a 128 would take a hit but dang thats low.

Much of that has to do with the ion sensing system built into the coil/ecm. It's very rare i run anything other than a stock 6R12 or autolite/champion equivalent. Also, I mostly stick to stock plug wires on EFI bikes. I've found the more you vary those two components, the less reliable the ion sensing feature seems to be. Its the systems ability to retard timing automatically after several detonation events. I feel that if your engine is relatively stock, and running a completely different spark plug fixed a problem, its either a temporary fix or masking another issue.

@@KevinBaxter Actually the engine had started to miss here and there recently, I made a comment earlier similar to this one on another video that you made, and it usually did this at cruising speed, it was also popping from time to time on deceleration so I ordered those NGK plugs because they were highly recommended when I did a Google search(ooops). I also put one of those 8mm suppressor core cloth covered spark plug wire kits together and the bikes check engine light came on every time I accelerated hard, it would go off when I came back down to cruising speed after a short time. When I put the old wires on the check engine light didn't come on anymore. I'm thinking I did something wrong when I put the wires together, that's a little winded probably for this comment but now I'm wondering if they just aren't compatible. Wow I have a lot to learn with these newer fuel injected Harley's.

its most likely a compatibility issue.

Exactly the same way on both carb and fuel injection on cars and bikes. With later model carb and efi, it uses an electronic map sensor to read manifold pressure and adjusts thru the whole range. Earlier carb bikes used a VOES switch to retard timing under load and was more of a switch. That is more similar to a vacuum advance distributor in a car. Of course as you know, you also have the weights to dial in on a distributor to manage the ign curve. With electronic...its full and 3 dimensional...easier to optimize under all conditions.

@@KevinBaxter thought so but didnt know for sure ..thank ya! Darrell

Youre more than welcome my friend.

A 98...MM system. I actually havent used a cobra tuner on a MM system and arent aware of all the features and functions. If it allows for custom ignition settings, follow the same plan as modern ign systems really. I say...."Give the engine what it wants...it'll tell you when it likes it". Ride, adjust, repeat. Best of luck to you sir.

@@KevinBaxter what is a MM system? The ignition is the same as the 1 u previewed in the video just a different brand (cheaper)😎. I have my cobra tuner adjusted I was just lookin for timing curve advice for the ignition module 👍

MM is Magneti Marelli....the first EFI system installed on HD's in 1995 or 96 I believe was the first year.

depends on the trans. all 99-06 A motors are the same and will interchange. Cruise drive trans in 07 is when the case changed so an 07 engine will not bolt up to an 06 and earlier trans.

@@KevinBaxter, I don't mean to pick your brain too much but I have another question about doing an engine swap from an 88 to a twin cam. I had figured on needing to change the transmission already but what about wiring and the computer for the twin on a pre 2007 frame?

the engine doesnt care really. harness, ecm, and sensors all need to match. if you have all that, you can put it in anything really.

The only product left to tune the ECM is a Maximus tuner. We do a lot of them. Arent many shops that still do. Where do you live? May be able to refer you to someone.

I live just south of Sydney. You did some training over here yeah?

Oh yeah. Have good friends at Rollies (Rollie, John, Berto) , Morgan and Wacker (Malcolm), APL Perf (Adam and Julie), Heavy Duty Magazine etc....spent quite a bit of time over there. Loved it.

Give Adam a call at APL. I believe he is up to speed on the Maximus pretty well.

Not sure if Berto at Rollies is still playing with Vics.

Not at all the only way. One just has to have the patience and understanding of ign and engine dynamics. In most cases, and if ign timing is optimized, if you make a change to exhaust and air box, an ign timing change isnt really necessary. But...if you change cams, pistons, heads, compression ratio, etc....those have a big effect on ignition timing and should be tuned.

not too bad if youve been running it hard.

If it is ping....sounds like marbles rattling in a can.

not sure what you mean exactly. find an idle spark that the engine likes and starts easy with. Then move to roll on and find detonation point, the wide open throttle, then blend the cruise range.

@@KevinBaxter Sorry sir, guess what I was getting at was in the powervision datalog, I can graph the info but dont know what channel to look at. So example I compare my KPA channel and the Lamda channel then make adjustments when I compare the two. Was curious if it was the same way for spark.

look at the channels that are the basis for the table you are working on. in the case of spark, you would want to look at MAP and RPM. Throw TPS in there as well to give you and idea of how its being ridden at that MAP.

@@KevinBaxter Thanks, just was messing around with it. So far 40min ride I found 1 event on front cylinder and 3 events on rear. All have been 2 degrees retard I believe that how I read it. Never ending learning in this expensive hobbie. But I love it!

Id take out a couple more degrees from those areas and smooth the table.

please send email to kevin@protwin.com

Hi Rob. Thanks for the comment. The rough formula for mean piston speed in fpm is =(Stroke x 2 x RPM)/12. Of course thats the mean...since piston comes to a dead stop at bdc and tdc, it then has to accelerate reaching speeds well above the mean speed at the middle of the stroke.

@@KevinBaxter DAMN!!! Yes, I know that. I actually did the calc a few times to make sure my gray hair was not messing with me. I totally forgot to divide by 12 to convert inches to feet. Nothing like public humiliations to make me check my work in the future. Oh well, at least I can still serve as a bad example.

No humiliation at all sir! Thank you for commenting. I'm always a student myself. We all learn daily or should. I appreciate you thinking it thru and caring enough to speak up. None of us are perfect and when I try to communicate so much information, I am certainly not without possibility of mis-speaking. This is a community of people who will respect and look out for each other with motorcycles being the common bond. So thank you. All the best.

@@KevinBaxter You have the right attitude for this business, Kevin. Very glad I found your vids.

I believe far more people have a difficult time understand the effect of ignition timing and what is really going on inside their engine, then to say....you have a rotor with a notch cut out that passes thru a "magnetic switch". When the notch passes thru, it triggers the ignition indicating TDC, then the coil is fired based on ignition settings. Of course you have an electronic version where the pickup is a cam sensor instead of a physical cup used as late as early TC. Then there are other systems, like on later TC and M8, where the ign uses the crank sensor alone by detecting a notch in the crank to determine TDC but also senses the crank slowing down on the compression stroke of the rear cylinder to determine phase of the crank. From there...same thing....TDC is determined, phase is recognized, coil is triggered based on ign settings programmed in. But there are more advanced systems on other bikes and cars where cam sensors and crank sensors are utilized and actually must sync to a millivolt and are far more complex but those are the basics. The goal with the video, was in fact to demonstrate the application of the basic mechanics of an ignition system. I've never had anyone ask me "what does a timing cup do". But I have had thousands of people over the years ask me, "how do you set ignition timing, what are the proper settings, how do you tune ignition, what causes detonation, etc....". So....this video was for them. If you would like to suggest I do a video on those basic mechanics I mentioned above, I can add that to the list of upcoming videos. Thanks for your input and for the comment.