No fire

[Joey]

I've always been told to be careful what you ask for. I've asked the good Lord to teach me patience......he lets me buy two Cubs. I'm getting a good lesson in patience, but the problem is, I don't have time for the lesson because the grass is growing! I've been working sporadically on Popeye, getting in a session here and there when the time lets me. I've got him together, but I can't get him cranked. I've got no fire at the plug. It's a 6-volt system with a magneto. I've checked the wiring as best as I could, but the problem is I haven't found a diagram that fits my system exactly and I'm not an electrical whiz. I'm pretty sure it's wired correct because it ran for two years before the work began. The ammeter is not registering anything. Nada. No needle movement. I set the timing as per instructions in the manual - went through the process 3 times. Any suggestions, ideas, comments? What have I missed? Thanks for any help.

[Donny M]

Joey,

I'd go about it this way:

First check to see if you have fire from mag to the dist. Pull the wire from the center of the dist cap and hold the end near the block (about 1/2") and crank the engine. You should have spark. If not pull the kill wire from the mag and try again. If still no spark, make sure the points are opening and closing. You can do this if you have an ohm meter. Place 1 lead to the block and 1 lead to the kill lug on the mag. You should see the points acting like a switch (opened closed ect. ect.). If the points are working ok then you most likely have a bad mag coil or the lead from the mag coil to the points has shorted.

Hope this helps.

[Jim Becker]

With the ground wire disconnected from the magneto, there should be no connections between the rest of the electrical system and the magneto. Then totally forget about anything in the wiring until after you get the engine running. It has no effect on it.

[Joey]

Thanks, Donny and Jim. I'll try to check it out tomorrow - it's a holiday for us! Need to round up an ohmmeter and learn how to use it. I'll try to post the results tomorrow night.