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Finally back to work on the 450. Cam chain timing.

I think that if this bike has sat for some time, that other influences are present, specifically in the electrical system and quirks of the bike.

To begin, a healthy battery is a must. If not present, the difficulties may be insurmountable so do yourself a huge favor and ensure battery is good. At this point we assume good compression, valves adjusted, cam chain, carbys clean, clear filters, clear fuel flow - the easy things. What I'm thinking from the general clutch discussion is this may be a run out engine where age, corrosion, humidity are in a conspiracy against you. Don't assume something functions well just because its clean. Conversely, the corrosion present in the points cavity/advancer mechanism photos, lead me to believe this one will need more than just basic parts.

Another thing looming are the spark plug caps. New, they meter out at pretty much dead on 5000 ohms, or 5K ohms. As they age, the resistance just increases so if their ohm resistance measurements are 8K or greater will have a much weaker spark. it'll be of long duration, but very, very weak. Good caps are as imperative as a good battery in order of importance. At least that is my experience. Anything greater than 10K ohms and there won't be any spark energy left to ignite internally, much less run properly.

Also assumed are good, if not new, spark plugs. Check resistance of the coils, no cracks, good connections, no cracked or pinched wires to the points. Again, basic stuff.

As an aside, if the advancer sticks, the idle will hang at 3-4000 rpm and won't respond to idle speed adjustment. But, that's a later problem to just getting it to run in the basic sense.

I hope this helps to troubleshoot this particularly quirky engine. I still learn from the posts here and am grateful the forum exists!
J
 
I went back and looked at your pictures. How many degrees off would you estimate the intake cam mark is off? Also how exactly are you on the positioning of the crank? it is hard to see in the pictures and you can see the engine. For reference, the cam sprocket has 30 teeth which puts them at 12° apart on the cam and 24° on the crank.
Lee
 
Thanks for the comments. The cam chain all worked out when I got the right tooth on the sprocket. All marks lined up. The battery is new, the coils are new, the sparkplug caps are new, the points are new and the sparkplugs are new. It may be awhile until I get back to work, as the temperature is running between 26F and 40-50F. I don't like to heat the shop since the condensation rusts all my tools.
 
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