The gap in the lams is normal and is caused by the coils mounting ears. If you take it apart, record the number of lams above and below the coil ears so it goes back together the same way. The brushes ride in brass tubes which can be cleaned with a barrel brush. I think i spun a .22 or .223 caliber one in a drill to do mine. Check your brush holders to. One of mine was burned thru at the bottom and leaking current to ground thru a mounting screw. Also make sure there is continuity between the little brass grounding plate under the flywheel and the flywheel itself as there is a little tiny spring under the plate which might burn out. The wires on my HS-10 had been soldered onto the points to so I took a brass plate with the screws in it off a spare set of HD-TN points so I wouldn’t have to solder them back on. The original condenser was rated at 0.18 uF so I epoxied two Vishay 0.10 caps into the original can to help make it spark again.
It took me a really long time to get the bugs out of this HS-10 mag so I hope yours is better.
