As said in another post discussing timing
line up the vertical line which is the front cyl. set the points at say .018
Rotate the engine until the rear mark is visible "mine is the lazy 8" and check the points again
if greater than .004 or so I need to replace the lobe that works the Points
Am I right about this?

 

Well, sorta correct.
I suggest you do it this way:
Forget about the timing marks.
Just remove the cover plate and gasket on the ignition compartment.
Rotate the engine until you are on the high point of the cam lobe. (The ignition cam has 2 lobes, one for each cylinder)
Set the points at .018 gap.
Rotate the engine until the other cam lobe is at the high point.
Check to see what the gap is.
If greater than .004 difference, you will need a new cam.
But suppose for example, the other gap is .022 (or less), then the spread is .004 and within limits.
If this were to be the case, reset the first gap at .016 rather than .018....and recheck the other gap which should read .020 instead of .022 as per the example.
What you have done is spread the .004 difference evenly between both lobes, i.e., one at .016 and one at.020 or on each side of that ideal .018 setting.......pg

 

Got cha, Thanks !!

 

As PG wrote you need to "center" this difference if it exist, why you might ask, because dwell angle is greater with smaller gap on points. Dwell angle is "time" what coil has time to "charge" (points closed) before spark, greater time/angle better spark. In other hand ignition timing can't be done with very small gap on points, thats why 0.18" limit.

 

Yeah I see what your talking about, thanks for all the information

 

Gosh,
I hate to post this, but it came in an old piece of harley literature, and its worked for me several times..

When the cam was offset from side to side I read this, honestly...

Using a brass drift just gently tap her in the direction needed... I set both sides at .018" right on the money, then I hold the cam at full advance and static time it through the timing hole...

I've always been seriously against raising a hammer to any bike, especially someone elses, but that's the way I've done it for quite a while...

That being said, if the cam rotor was radically out I'd take her down to the bones to see what the deal was, or replace it if need be...

This method's never given us any grief...

Sound's too simple to work, but a lot of folks feel that way about the Harley engine to begin with!

 

Yeah this is one solution and yes it can be used, but you need to be aware that that screw that holds centrifugal advancer in place can snap in this operation...so bee gentle screw can be opened and you need to clean it and put fresh locking glue on tip of it, then adjust both sides to same after that tight screw.
I have adjust timing so that I use "selfmade" tool to turn lobes to full advance position then adjust points by almost centering the timing mark (actually max advance is about 35-40º )