Re: What exactly does The small coil do?

[legendre]

quote fleetwin:

Someone here explained once that the low tension system was developed partially because of the desire to get an alternator winding under the flywheel. No room for alternator windings using the two coils on the conventional universal mag set up.

Oh yeah, if you approach it from that direction, it does make sense.. the engineers were working within managerial and philosophical constraints, and this was just a low-point in an otherwise successful design cycle.

My main point, is that I’ve worked with several low-tension mags like this (in the motorbike world) – but prior to this one, I’ve never once seen a low-tension mag system that ran +two+ alternately phased ignition coils off of +one+ exciter coil. It seems like it would be low on power, and apparently, it was.

BTW, this is essentially a two-cylinder moped ignition, for those who might care.