Timing tab example (this is a different bike but most have something similar).




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hi, here's a few shots of the bike on the bench, as it sits now. Bill has done a great job at restoring it. it was in a pretty sorry state before he put his time into it.




here's shots things we've talked on already. i'm showing the extra black wire coming from the ignition circuit.
of course, the last picture shows the points in an opened state, but when i put my continuity tester across the contact breaker arms, it showed continuity. which was what had me scratching my head before, and had Bill and I tearing things apart, looking for a short somewhere.

we didn't put any work into it today. I was sorting out some electrical things on my suzuki gs1100e, getting a circuit going for heated gloves...mmmmm

Bill also reminded me today though that the carburetor had some issue, as well. the slide has a tendency to hang up in the elevated state if you spin the twistgrip too far. we need to investigate and mitigate that one as well, kill switch or not!!

hopefully we can put some hours in later this week.

I see just looking at the flywheel pic that it has the advance mechanism, which is a good thing. But to set the timing or for the points to break at 2.9mm btdc you'll need to hold it on advance. Not sure how i held mine against the spring, too long ago, but i'd think there must be a pin through a hole to the advance arm to lock it somehow [guessing]. I just expanded the pic & can't see anything obvious. Think i've been here before so ignore me. Reminiscing on my rough old RT1. Just thinking, Rethinking though, even on retard if you can get at the points to gap them then the timing should still be close to 2.9 when up on advance running. Wear in the moving parts of the cam could change it from how its meant to be new from the factory. Strobing it while running is a good idea if parts are worn. The gap i can see in the pic looks a bit wider than 14-ish but maybe just the angle of the pic.

The condenser & ignition coil ultimately are both grounds (earth), so, when testing an open set of points you'll see continuity to ground, unless you take the wire on the points arm out of the circuit.

I think when I timed my RT1B this summer the spec in the service manual was 3.4 mm BTDC. The 2.9 didn’t come along until later...like the RT2/RT3. However a service bulletin MarkT posted indicates you could retard to 2.9 if you experience bucking and surging on deceleration. I’ve left mine at 3.4 for now. Also the wire your finger is on doesn’t connect to anything...you can use it with a meter to check points open/close. Hope this helps!

these seem contradictory, and is what has me scratching my head. what's the other meter point against the spare black lead?

months back, when troubleshooting, we tried taking the wires off from the points arm, or finding another way to isolate the contact point arms from each other, as i knew that with the magneto coil and the coil etc, everything reached ground eventually on both sides. got to a point where i thought "theres no way you've gotta have this much junk disassembled and wires disconnected to do a simple points procedure..."

our paper service manual (haynes/clymer) has the 2.9mm spec listed, and we'll likely set to that spec.
thanks friends!

thanks. i had to use a second set of hands to hold the advancer open while we tried to set it last time. didn't seem to be an obvious way about it with only one set of hands.

Yamaha put that spare wire there for the purpose of checking the points open/close. I have only very carefully used the naked eye to set points/timing. I am sure one the experts that have done this many times or worked in a shop can explain. I only know it is there for that purpose.

I am right-handed...so for holding advance/setting timing...index finger and thumb on left hand to hold advance open and rotate flywheel back and forth. Screw driver in right hand to adjust and tighten points

My Yamaha manual says 3.4 MM BTDC. However, from being around this site it has been well established that if you look in multiple manuals you'll likely see multiple settings for various things. Timing, float adjustment, main jets, pilot jets, needles and jets just to list a few. Your Haynes/Clymer manual is most likely a later production than the original Yamaha manuals. I just wanted to throw that out there. I like to run as much timing advance as what is called for on most things gasoline related. The 2.9 setting may be best overall.

How many degrees before TDC does the ankle breaking start? Is that why someone says 2.9 may be the best way to go? Fewer bruised and broken feet?

Thats interesting. I thought all 360s were 2.9 & all 250s were 3.2. i'll go back to school but might be getting confused with say Dt1 verses Dt1mx 3.2 & 2.9 respectively.