" I'm really hopeful for an update this side of Christmas"
As that was clearly never going to happen. To cut a long story short, staff changes at RCK have meant that the custom made electronic ignition idea was shelved and an attempt was made to get the old points ignition working on the basis that it's simple and should be fairly reliable and easy to deal with. At this point, the ignition coil was believed to be dead (more on this later) so a separate coil was set up running from a battery, the points were adjusted and the bike was rolled outside to try to start it. Unfortunately I wasn't there when this all happened but I'm told the bike did start, but stopped after a few seconds. A minor victory that at least proves the engine can run
With a bit of investigation it was found that the flywheel had slipped on the crankshaft, putting the timing out. But worse, it had managed to get itself stuck. Before any attempt was made to remove it in case it was damaged, I was tasked with finding a replacement. As luck would have it one came up on eBay later that week and was promptly snapped up. Once the new flywheel was in hand, the old one could be removed 'by whatever means necessary'. As it happens, the old flywheel was already cracked which only got worse once it was removed. I had a feeling that flywheel wasn't going to be any good long term anyway so it wasn't such a bad thing to replace it early on.
At this point I really felt like we were getting somewhere, but since we had the issue with the flywheel getting stuck, it was decided that we should be putting new points in before it gets fitted, to give as long a life as possible. This is where the ignition hit back. If you are looking at buying a bike, particularly in the UK, with a Safi SSY2 ignition, be aware that parts for these ignition systems are not available in the UK at all and the parts that are available in France are expensive and few and far between. I haven't been able to find new points, although I can get them reconditioned for 45 Euros. It's the same story with ignition coils. As a further spanner in the works, the 'new' flywheel was meant to rotate the opposite direction so wouldn't work to trigger the points at the right time anyway
A few weeks passes whilst I was trying to stomach these charges and potentially find another new flywheel and a couple of conversations got me thinking about electronic ignition again. If you have a quick Google, you'll find there are lots of 'universal electronic ignition modules' designed for small engines, mainly lawnmover/chainsaw sized though. With no understanding of how they work, I tried contacting one seller, who merely stated 'I don't know how they work, but they do'. After some more internet research, I did find a better explanation, but essentially the circuitry uses the induced current in the ignition coil to calculate timing and create the spark at the correct time. I was fairly convinced that we could make something work with one, but I wasn't so sure about the cheap Chinese made ones that seem to be designed for smaller engines.
Again, more internet research and I discovered this page about the Atom ignition module including the fact that they made one specifically for motorbike engines. This appealed to me more as it's designed for a larger engine, as well as having proper fitting instructions. The only problem is they are no longer made! Luckily, I managed to find one on eBay in it's packaging so fingers crossed it works!
So now the plan is to use the electronic ignition module, the original ignition coil and the second flywheel as it doesn't need to trigger any points. The ignition module only needs to be earthed and connected to the coil, so it can be hidden behind the flywheel meaning externally the bike will appear stock. The main advantage should be that the bike will fire first time, every time.
You may have realised that there's a bit of a flaw in that plan; the ignition coil. As it stands right now, I don't know if that coil does or doesn't work. Hopefully it will be tested this week and if it doesn't then there is a company in France who offer reconditioned coils for Safi ignitions on a return basis. For now I've got everything crossed but at least a decision has been made.
Sorry for the convoluted explanation but it's been quite a journey to arrive back at electronic ignition, albeit a completely different system. I've also purchased a few parts but I'll cover them in another post (or two!)
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