[SEL] Mag Help

[Joe Prindle]

Ted Brookover is one of the finest magneto men there is. He has been doing
it for a long time and he has seen just about everything. I hope that he
will have the time to post a few pointers about the EK, but in the
meantime, I am going to give you a few things to look at.

Take you mag off the engine, remove the armature (the part made out of
laminations that slides up and down on the pin sticking out the bottom of
the mag). Make sure that the faces of the laminations are clean, no bits
of old grease, or dirt or metal shavings stuck to them.

Once you are sure that the surfaces are clean, put the armature back on
the pin and hold the mag up to the light. Look to see if there is any gap
between the armature and the stationary core. If there is any gap, and you
can see light through the gap, it is too much and must be corrected.

The first thing I would check is to see if the armature is hitting the
core cock-eyed. Often you can loosen the screws that hold the front
casting of the mag to the rest of it. By the front casting, I mean the
part that has the pin in it for the armature to slide on. Often you can
loosne those screws just a bit and get the casting to move a tiny bit to
close up that air gap, and then snug the screws back down.

If that doesn't work, sometimes you can loosen the screws that clamp the
laminations together that make up the armature, put the armature on the
mag and gently tap on them with a screwdriver handle or tiny mallet to get
the laminations to seat more evenly against the core, then tighten the
screws back up.

Sometimes the laminations are worn, or have ridges from thousands of
cycles of slamming against each other as the mag tripped. This makes it
impossible to get a good contact between the two surfaces. I have fixed
this on a few mags by very carefully filing both surfaces, but it took a
lot of thinking and a little filing. If you aren't careful, you can do
more harm than good. So, if you don't feel you can get it right the first
time, better off leaving it alone and having a mag repair man go through
it for you. I tried cleaning one up by mounting it on my surface grinder.
The magneto and the magnetic chuck on my surface grinder did not get along
well and things became very ugly. I would now like to change the subject.

That armature needs to have as close to 100% contact with the core as
possible, if it doesn't, the chances of getting good reliable spark are
about as slim as a super model on a hunger strike. Even if it is
contacting nicely, it would be good to make friends with someone who has a
magnet charger. Anytime you tear one apart it should get a trip across the
charger, even if the magnets weren't weakened, it eliminates one variable.

Hopefully Ted will chime in and give the definitive answer.

Welcome to the list, lots of good people here and once you get to know
some of them you will have friends across the country and around the
world. Not bad, eh?
Joe





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Joe Prindle
Member Badger Steam & Gas, Baraboo, WI
www.badgersteamandgas.com
Hosting the HPOCA Nat'l Oliver Show
August 19, 20 & 21, 2005
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"Is this a private fight, or can anyone join in?"
Old Irish Proverb
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