Reply To: Johnson 1949 HD 25 No Spark

[TiIngot]

I apologize to those that have provided guidance to me.  I’m still at it though.  It has been three weeks of “issues” that pulled me off the HD 25 project.  Here my current status.  I found two new NOS condensers for $9.99 each on eBay and purchased them.  While waiting for their arrival I found the complete magneto/ignition assembly for $14.99 !!! on eBay too.  Complete meaning the entire ignition plate with two magneto’s, two points sets, two condensers, stop switch …. everything, The Holy Grail !!!

Well, USPS lost the shipment.  It finally arrived two weeks late.  Now I have an assembly that I can compare ohm, continuity and capacitance readings with.  On my original ignition system, I only found one bad magneto.  Everything on the purchased unit checked out OK so I removed and cleaned both point sets and swapped out the entire ignition assembly and rechecked all the magneto and point gaps.

I am using my DeWalt battery drill to spin the engine and I now have good spark on the bottom cylinder and intermittent or weak spark on the top cylinder.  The next move is to pull the top points and swap them out with one from the original set.

Again s**t happens.  4 driveways + 15″ of snow + plus a 77-year-old back = I can hardly walk.  To be continued.

Thanks again.

Retired titanium melt shop manager. (Think about me next time you fly in a window seat and look at the engines spinning below the wings!)