Hello, I have a '99 monty 315r. I took off the ignition cover and removed the stator and pickup so I could beadblast and repaint it. The stator went back in no problem but i'm not sure of the correct placement of the pickup. The factory manual was no help. When I first placed it back in it was rubbing on the flywheel. I moved it some and no rubbing. The bike starts no problem but seems to have the timing advanced. Its really snappy and seems to be detonating a bunch when I back off the throttle to idle down.

Right now i'm not sure if its the pickup position or an air leak. I had the cylinder off to have it replated and install new piston and rings. The snappiness wasn't there before I took the bike apart. The cylinder was in bad shape before replating though. I had pump gas in it after assembly so I believe its not low octane. I ended up putting the bike in the basement for the winter but now its time to sort it out with the weather trying to turn.

Hi, are you sure the pickup has any movement,,, , i thought it just bolted in to postion,,,?

Is the snappiness feel, due to the replate, (rise in compression) and was the base gasket ok, not over torqued,,

check for leaks with a aerosol can around motor while its running, and way up the conditon of the plug,,

is it definitely detonating, or is it knocking on throttle chop,,,

I know mine knocked, like mad on anything else other than fresh super unleaded,,,

hope some more chime inn,, and you sort it out bud

Edited March 16, 201313 yr by clay

Lots of compression from fresh rings will cause more ping.

These engines require high octane fuel, and the spec in the Owner's manual is for RON 92-100, which is not available in the US. The US pump premium is usually about 91 AKI (Anti-Knock Index) which will be about 95-96 RON, and should be OK to use. Because ethanol can cause oil separation and is damaging to fiberglass fuel tanks I use non ethanol pump premium, and I don't store fuel more than a few weeks and I drain the system for storage.

http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=WA

Too much oil in the fuel will lean jetting and can cause ping, the OEM jetting is for 80:1 but you need a high quality synthetic to run that lean. Montesa recommends Elf HTX976.

I've been around a few 315s (98/99/2000/2001/2002) and by far the most snappy was the 99...just don't ask me why, but it was. The only time I ever heard of anyone altering the timing, it involved slotting the pick-up holes?