Background Information

The whole reason I even started looking into getting a Boyer Electronic Ignition system was because
I was having an impossible time trying to get my engine timed correctly. The bike had the following problems:

1. Stumbling at high RPM's ( you know, up about 5200-6000 RPMs where the engine hesitates and the Generator light flickers)
2. Had trouble idling at low RPM's
3. Galloping (at least that's what I called it where the engine would sound like it misfired once, and then would catch up.)
4. Detonation in cylinders!!!
5. Noise from Cylinders!
6. Vibration!!!

So, after days and days playing with the points, trying static and dynamic timing, and pulling out a lot of hair, it finally struck me that maybe I had a bent cam. Turns out I did. Here's how I determined I did and it's an easy little test for you to perform:

1. Rotate the engine (Allen key in alternator) till your points are at their most open.
2. Check with a gap gauge what that gap is.
3. Rotate the engine so that the advance mechanism turns 180° from where is was in step 1.
4. Measure the gap again.

Now, if you have a straight cam, I think the two gaps should be the same. Mine weren't, one was about .013" and the other was about .017-8". Therefore, when the sparks fired at the first gap, they were correct, but when they fire at the other, it's too late and thus you get a misfire. And since the only thing moving here is the cam, it led me to believe it was the cam that was bent. Thus, I could never get the thing timed correctly because when I adjusted one gap, I was throwing the other off, and thus the best I could hope for was somewhere in the middle, but even then they would both be off. VERY FRUSTRATING!!! The misfiring intermittently at idle is what I described as galloping. Stupid term, but that's what I meant. The Boyer ignition does not rely on a physical connection to the cam, and so it doesn't matter how far out of whack your cam is, you still get an accurate fire! It rocks!

Unfortunately the following was put together after I already had the unit installed, but I think it's still good.

Here's the Installation: (click on the words PICTURE for, well, a picture)

Step 1. Park the Bike on its centerstand, and remove the seat. PICTURE

Step 2. Disconnect the Negative battery cable at the battery side, (VERY VERY IMPORTANT!!!) remove the fuel lines from either petcock, I find a twist with the pull makes for much quicker results. (Hey, quit thinking dirty thoughts!) PICTURE

Step 3. Unscrew the two wingnuts under the fuel tank, and remove the tank. PICTURE Lift up in front first, then the back. It works out best to have some gas in it (for weight) and a little ledge to set it on so as to not put undue stress on the petcocks. PICTURE

Step 4. Unscrew, with a 5.5mm Allen wrench, the three bolts holding on the front cover. PICTURE You may have to remove the horn in order to remove the front cover, I always do.

Step 5. This is really more of a tip than a step, but the front cover makes a great holder for the three bolts, horn, and other stuff. PICTURE

Step 6. At this point you should have something that looks like this: PICTURE And the inside front cover should look sort of like this: PICTURE Make sure you notice the long black rubber tube.

Step 7. At this point, I don't have a lot of pictures because it has already been done, but here's what you gotta do. Disconnect the two wires from the condenser. Unscrew the condenser from the engine, and save the screw. You don't need the condenser anymore so put it away, I would suggest holding onto it though.

b. Gently unscrew the nut from the end of the cam. Remove the mechanical advance unit. Put the unit away somewhere.

c. Unscrew the two screws holding down the backer plate that has the points attached.

d. Remove the plate, and pull the wire from the points out of the long rubber tube. Put away the plate and points, save the screws.

e. I could not get the new backer plate's wires through the tube, so I cut the sheiving off of the wires and fed them through one at a time with the female end going first. It took a while and a lot of twists, but I finally got it.

f. Place the plate in place and screw it down, make the screws just about in the middle of the adjusting slots, with the wires going downward.

g. Screw the black rubber tube into where the condenser used to be. PICTURE

h. Put the Rotor on the end of the cam with the magnets on the side close to the engine base. PICTURE

Step 8. Now it's time to mount the control box! Place the box just behind the coils and with the wire bundle coming out of the left side. Use the two big cable zip-strips to mount it to the frame. PICTURE PICTURE PICTURE

Step 9. Pull the black cable out of the bundle, run it around to the right coil and plug it in. PICTURE You will notice, I left the old, black connector, wire in place that ran from the coil to condenser, just in case I ever want to easily go back to stock in the future.

Step 10. Remove the front Allen bolt from the left coil, and add the new brown connector to the existing ground. (also brown) PICTURE

Step 11. At this point you have a fork, you can either: run the red cable with the in-line fuse from the left coil back to the positive battery terminal and connect the stock green wires that are currently connected to the left coil to the make spade connector on the new green wire, or you can do what I did and remove the red wire altogether (unscrew at fuse and save) and cut the male spade off of the green wire and attach the provided female connector. Then attach both the old and the new green wires to the left coil. PICTURE If you go with the first option, which isn't necessary, sometimes when you turn off the ignition, the bike will continue to run until you put a load on the system like tapping on the brakes so the lights come on. As I said, I went with the second option and it's worked great!

Step 12. Run the last cables (in a pair and sheived) up the frame and down behind the existing cables at the front cover. PICTURE Connect these wires to the ones coming up from the backing plate and out of the rubber tube. PICTURE

Step 13. Put it all back together except the front cover. Time the bike with a timing light, sliding the backing plate left or right for adjustments. Disconnect negative cable again, put back on front cover, reattach negative cable. RIDE! PICTURE

I forgot: All in all with shipping the unit cost me $180 from Rocky Point Cycles . Stan is very nice, knowledgeable, and will take care of you over there!