[AzCal Retred]

There is an interesting (small) battery-sized void between the transmission and rear fender lower mount. A battery there would be virtually invisible & take advantage of wasted space. Just needs a little box fabricated.

Taking all the toolboxes off gets you a skeletal look. The toolboxes really get in your way for stand-up off-road use, but for sit-down road riding no problem. The only real downside to the skeletal look is there isn't any good home for your various electrical switches. Doing everything in the casquette gets really busy. If you skip the ammeter & turn signals, the wiring to the casquette gets down to :
1) ground(-),
2) Horn (+) to Ground
3) Kill switch from points
4) headlight (+)
OR
4a) AC to Headlight
4b) AC Common
A few switches in the underseat area can cover ignition, headlights On/Off, etc.

The pod filter is easier to live with, IMHO. If you have a "high-flow" exhaust you may benefit from a bigger carb. The Mikcarb works well enough for a stock engine. If you don't have a known good high performance crank with steel con rod, alloy barrel and a forged piston you'll be sitting on a grenade if you like to throttle up the motor. The stock rods are weak and can break, the OEM pistons tend to drop skirts when you spin up these motors. I'd save my money until I had the basic performance pieces in place. THEN you can pull maybe 35 reliable horses out, and the cams, carb, etc. will become useful, not a liability.

[Adrian II]

There is an interesting (small) battery-sized void between the transmission and rear fender lower mount. A battery there would be virtually invisible & take advantage of wasted space. Just needs a little box fabricated.

You can also get a small battery box under the swinging arm spindle if you're not off-roading. Spot the yellow Motobatt.



However, if your alternator is healthy, do you really need a battery? Just wire in a suitable capacitor if you don't need parking lights, although this assumes you don't have a Boyer Bransden Mk3 electronic ignition fitted! 

But why stop there? To simplify things further, bin the coil ignition altogether and fit a Lucas SR1 magneto and ATD off the late 50's Redditch Bullets, there might be one off a '58 Indian Woodsman (export version of the Bullet) within a couple of hundred miles of you! No ignition wiring (apart from the HT lead) or key switch to worry about, and they bolt right on to the Indian Bullet crankcase.

A.

[Mid Mod]

It has an electronic ignition fitted already. I don’t know the brand but how many choices are there for this machine?
I’m so new to this bike and I have a lot of ideas that upon closer scrutiny turn out to be dead ends. But that’s the fun part right?

[Adrian II]

Most common electronic replacements for the Lucas-copy points set-up on an Indian Bullet are either one of the various Boyer Bransden analog or digital systems or possibly a Pazon. There was another brand which the former US Royal Enfield importer used to sell, though I can't remember what it was called. Also there was an Indian aftermarket version called the Eureka which was a bit cruder and still used the Bullet's mechanical advance and retard device.

Some of the older electronic ignitions with electronic advance and retard are very fussy about having a good 12V supply to start properly and can be bit of a disaster if the supply is a bit low, either through a poor battery or starting the bike without a battery where this has been replaced by a capacitor, and the alternator is in poor shape. The Mk3 Boyer Bransden Analog was a case in point, if it sensed low voltage, it would go to full advance rather than retard and reward your starting efforts with an uncomfortable back-fire, enough to damage the sprag clutch on electric start bikes as well as ruin the teeth on a Bullet's oil-pump drive shaft.

A.

[AzCal Retred]

You could simply refit a points plate, capacitor & points. That eliminates the mystery about the source of spark and vastly simplifies timing issues, as you can SEE it work. The Carburettor/Points/Pushrods aspect of the Bullet is one of the main attractions.

Rather the whole point of the Bullet is to get back to a "simpler" motorcycle. Adding EFI, Antilock brakes, Electronic ignition, ad nauseum just gets you back into the present, and there are endless modern lighter, faster, more niche honed machines that benefit from the 80 years of technological advancement by virtue of having started off with a clean sheet of paper and knowledge of what came before.

Unless you have an engine already blessed with about $3,000 worth of needle bearing crank, steel connecting rod, forged piston & steel rings and alloy barrel you aren't going to benefit much from modern trickery, it'll just melt or break if you push it hard trying for more than it's allotted 22 Indian ponies. A little bit of theoretical erraticism from mechanical spark timing goes completely unnoticed at 2500 RPM and 6.5/1 compression ratio. Both my points operated machines start & run perfectly well. You can troubleshoot and even time them if need be on the side of the road with a screwdriver & a grass stem to feel for the piston position. Try that with your Hayabusa!

[cyrusb]

Amen , brother Retred. I couldn't have said it better. My ignition conversion was a custom made point plate to accept Volkswagen/Mercedes one piece points. Available almost anywhere. As an aside that can be done with the original plate and a drill press.

[Mid Mod]

Maybe someone recognizes this trigger and ignition box. I hope it’s decent.

[Adrian II]

I think that's the Indian Eureka set-up, my suspicion is that, were you to remove the trigger plate (having carefully marked its position first) you'd find the mechanical advance and retard still fitted behind there. I've never heard of them giving trouble.

The Indian Bullet's contact breaker assembly is a copy of the Lucas 4CA, so someone dealing in classic Brit bike spares could also help, if you wanted to revert to points, it looks identical to the kit fitted to my old 1965 250 BSA. Hey, you could even upgrade to the Lucas 6CA!

A.

[AzCal Retred]

Here you go:

https://accessories.hitchcocksmotorcycles.com/2155?qty=1&continue_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hitchcocksmotorcycles.com%2Fpartsbook-pages%2F1923
PART No. 144146 ; C/B PLATE, CAM AND AUTOADVANCE UNIT ASSY, 500, 535 AND 350cc AFTER 06/98 ; £77.00

It'll be at your door in 4 - 7 days. The new auto-advance will operate smoothly and the springs will be crisp. Put a drop of oil on the cam wiper pad, make certain it lightly contacts the cam. The tiny film of lube minimizes point arm wear.

Static timing is 0.8mm BTDC; "ping time" from there. Personally the static number has worked OK for me.

Also useful:
https://accessories.hitchcocksmotorcycles.com/accessory-shop/tools-engine/9553
PART No. 49622 ; EXTRACTOR, CONTACT BREAKER, 736 INTERCEPTOR SII & Pre-2007 INDIAN BUILT BULLETS ; £5.50

I have one, but so far the adjustment is close enough as so far i haven't needed to use it.

[ddavidv]

I can understand upgrading(?) to electronic ignition on a bike of higher performance or one where the points are difficult to access. Otherwise, I vastly prefer the simplicity of the mechanical ignition. If set properly (and it's not difficult) starting should be no problem.

The only vehicle I can recall having 'issues' with was my Austin Mini. The point gap would open up after a time and it would run with a bit of a stutter on the highway. The worst part of correcting that was taking the grille off the front to get to the distributor. 

[AzCal Retred]

Like Ddavidv I am impressed with the basic accessibility of the Bullet for routine maintenance. The stuff you NEED to access is right out there in the open, about eyeball high when the machine is on it's center stand and you're plonked down on the ground next to it, either in the shop or on a roadside grassy knoll. Rather seems like the folks that originally built them actually rode them, all the time, in all weather. I especially appreciate the flip-up rear fender lash up for flat repair - no need to tilt the machine over precariously whilst balancing on the center stand...just flip up the tail and the tyre comes straight out the back. Even the greasy bits stay on the machine through the foresight of having designed the sprocket/brake carrier to live on it's own hollow spindle. Just like they knew what they were doing.

[Paul W]

I consider my Indian home market spec 350 Electra a great compromise between old and new.

Iron barrel engine, but no distributor or points to worry about because it has TCI ignition. All safely tucked away in the primary chain case and a control module under the seat. The absence of drive pinions in the timing case means less engine noise.

It has right hand side gear lever, left side brake, as originally intended so it doesn’t have sloppy cross over mechanisms.

The name “Bullet Electra” normally means the troublesome starter motor or on the AVL engine, a suspect big end bearing assembly. This bike is kickstart only and has the old type bottom end.

I removed its main Achilles heel, the four speed gearbox with the big gap between third and fourth gears, and fitted a five speed one. Now when I get on the bike, I just want to keep on riding.

[Mid Mod]

That’s a sweet bike Paul. I like the side panels, very streamlined compared to mine. Is that custom?

[AzCal Retred]

You need one of these! That Woodsman exhaust is pretty cool.

https://accessories.hitchcocksmotorcycles.com/Exhaust-System-Woodsman-Style?&model=

A 5 speed and a front disc; that's about as far into the future as the Bullet needs to go.

[Paul W]

That’s a sweet bike Paul. I like the side panels, very streamlined compared to mine. Is that custom?

I made the side panel myself from a sheet of ally sheet using CAD (Cardboard Aided Design). Very simple really. To hold it in place I fitted “Riv-nuts” in the two holes in the frame tabs that used to take the nuts and bolts holding the top of the original side box. A couple of stainless screws hold the panel on, plus the long bolt holding the battery frame at the bottom. I made it so it covers as much of the aperture as possible so it helps keep road dirt from the back tyre off the bike.