Reply To: Am I Running On Only 1 Cylinder? Opinions? ’49 Sea King

[JOSEPH BRINCAT]

Since this thread is tending to be a general primer on this motor, I’ll jump in with an ignition question. There was a suggestion to check for cylinder firing by leaving one plug wire off. My understanding is that this is never a good idea, because a spark plug wire not to a plug or grounded will damage the ignition coil. That said, I see from the parts diagram that this motor has only one ignition coil and yet is an alternating firing twin ( I believe) . So, how does that work, absent some kind of distributor arrangement? Or perhaps this is a “wasted spark” system. Any thoughts on this?

One way to check if it’s firing on both cylinders is to run the motor for a few minutes and feel the spark plug body, if hot it’s firing, if cool that cylinder is dead.

Joe B