A65 SPITFIRE KICK BACK

[johnjag]

Hi all - been out and done a few miles. Fitted Air Filters and set up the carbs after I noticed it was misfiring slightly on the nearside. Contacted John Hill who kindly gave me the settings he used which included pilot one screw out. I screwed out the nearside pilot screw just half a turn more and the misfire stopped and it ticked over like a Swiss watch! It now starts every time on tickover so that will do for me. Incidently I said on my initial blog that I bought the bike off John Hill and doubted he had no trouble with it. THIS WAS A MISTAKE AS I BOUGHT IT OF SOMEONE WHO JOHN SOLD IT TO. I APOLOGISE TO JOHN FOR THIS MISTAKE.
John.

[Paxo]

I am in the same position with my A65, timing seem correct on Electrix ignition, I have battery eliminator so no battery either. What ever I do with the timing it just kicks back and snorts and that's it I can't even start it. It has 2 new Carbs on it but pre rebuild it did run on them.

Valve timing, tappet clearances all look good, has new fuel (E5) just went start

[Allan G]

I am in the same position with my A65, timing seem correct on Electrix ignition, I have battery eliminator so no battery either. What ever I do with the timing it just kicks back and snorts and that's it I can't even start it. It has 2 new Carbs on it but pre rebuild it did run on them.

Valve timing, tappet clearances all look good, has new fuel (E5) just went start

you might be better srarting a new topic as few people (myself included) are not going to ready a 4 year old post. Sorry if this doesn't sound helpful, but it should hopefully gain you more people trying to help with your question.

Regarding the electrix world, I fitted one for a friend under their request, it ran like a bag of spanners, blued the exhaust up instantly and retarded the ignition by a LOT (when checked with a strobe light). This was on a bantam and sold as fixed timing.

Personally I would ditch the P.O.S, obtain a boyer, trispark, pazon etc, get yourself a nice boyer powerbox and you can run that with your original stator and continue to be batteryless.

[Wheelnut]

I know this is an old post, but still relevent for people who search for A65 kick back issues.

I had the same problem and the cause is the Electrex self-generating ignition. It's quite dangerous as the system is set at  full advance unless the rotor is spinning at a certain rotational speed. Problem is, that rotational speed is not achieved when kicking over a high compression Spitfire engine, so you are effectively kicking the engine over at full ignition advance, hence the ankle-breaking kickback.

Like the OP, I checked everything ignition and fuel related until I discovered the problem. It's the same with big Norton twins, probably Triumphs too.

The only answer is to junk the Electrex World system as it is not fit for purpose on these bikes.

With my Hornet I switched to a small and light 6.5ah12v positive earth gel battery in conjunction with a Wassell VAPE electronic ignition and it starts easily every time with no risk of a kickback. The 6.5ah battery is probably okay for a long day out as a total loss system but I also fitted an alternator as I wanted to add a lighting system.

[EDDIE SIMPSON]

i had an a10 that was a bugger to start probably because of the auto pinion and kickbacked. my cure was hold the throttle open slightly using the throttle friction bolt then release it when the engine would tick over without cutting out. after about 1/4 mile. a rich choke might have the same effect.

[Allan G]

Are the float levels set-up to 0.080" below the cusp?
Easy to adjust with 'stay up' floats.

The method you are showing there is for the fuel level which is the preferred way of setting the fuel height and is the ONLY way of adjusting the black stay-up floats.

Fuel level should be set to about 0.210" +/- 0.030"

The 0.080" was the float height where the top of the old white plastic float was that distance from the top of the bowl... not the fuel level.



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I will add though, if its kicking back when you are opening the throttle - more than just taking up the slack then its most likely that the mixture is too lean. correct use of chokes and flooding of the carbs is the way forward, as well as proper setting of the pilot mixture.