Been busy carrying out some work on an Egli with genuine Shadow engine........primarily set up as a race bike methinks, but has lights and horn.......Had a pair of 38 mm Gardeners.........1200 cc TPV heads/barrels.......Tri spark twin plug ignition. Ignition was out 180 degrees so there was my starting point........Gardeners too difficult to tune for a road engine.......removed and installed a new set of pumper 40 mm Dellortos' and made up some manifolds to suit.......Great all looking good so far.......Engine would run actually quite well, but very difficult to start.......tried different starting techniques but nothing really jumping out to make it better........It did have an oil leak at the timing cover........I suspected that it might have some big cams that were making the starting an issue....... removed the cover, naturally 2 of the spindles were loose and no seal at all on the valve lifter mech.......At this point I noticed the cam locating slots were out on both cams by 3 teeth retarded.........Hmmmm........Fixed all within the chest, re set the cams to bring the slots in line with the barrel centers........re set the ignition to 28 full advance, reassembled all parts and timing cover.......filled the oil tank with 15 w 40 oil, bled the feed line........plugs and caps on, fuel on opened the throttle fully twice, started 1st kick.........Love to know who was the last person to work on this bike........The reason I felt the engine may have had big cams in it was........when it was running before i removed the cover, it had quite a lot of reversion visual from the front carby........the cams were just Mk 2 Lightning cams so nothing crazy there........just retarded by 45 degrees.......So nice to be able to give the bike back to the owner knowing it will start ok and not be a total pig........Sometimes you have to look further than you think especially if the bike has an unknown or unusual history........I can give my right leg a break now..........Cheers.
