I have a OC-3 oliver bulldozer with the Wico XH-1113 magneto. I have put in new points, condensor,and coil but still have no fire. The point gap is set at .015. I am not getting any fire anywhere. Anyone have any ideas what is going on here? Thank you.
I don't know the level of your mechanical or electrical expertise, so I have to list a few
logical steps. You've already replaced the coil, condenser, and points. I assume the
spring-impulse is working or you would have mentioned it. This impulse makes the mag.
snap quickly at slow speed to create spark. If it's broken, you won't get much spark
without spinning the mag pretty fast. Next you need to ascertain if there is no spark
being created, or it's just not making it through the distributing cap. With the cap off,
check for spark at the secondary output of the coil - directly. It it sparks there, but does
not at the plug wires, then you have a secondary problem that may be in the cap or rotor.
If you haven't found the problem yet, check the magnets and make sure they're not
completely dead. Next check, make sure your points are operating correctly. If you don't
have a buzz-box to check them - do this. Unhook all the wires to the points. Then take
either an ohmmeter or continuity checker, and put it between any magneto ground and
the post (where the wires hook to) on the points. Slowly spin the mag; when the points
are open there needs to be no continuity, and when closed - full continuity. If that checks
out, see if there is an extra wire that runs from that post on the points that DOES NOT
GO to the coil or condenser, i.e. it would go to the shut-off switch or post on the mag. If
it exists, check it to make sure it is not grounded. Other than that, there's not much else.
Mags are pretty simple. I could include checking the coil and condenser, but you've
replaced them already. By the way, if the magnet is completely dead, it can easily be
recharged. Many people have rechargers (including me).
on the os-3 I just bought , some one drilled a hole in the cap and put a coil outside, I have no idea (not looked) what was done to do this, but I want to put it back to use the mag, is there any good info out there on mag repair?
Ron
I finally figured out what was going on with this magneto. It turns out that I just needed to sand the points off a little bit and everything went to working. I guess the new points must have had a coating of some sort on them.