1947 TD14 Intermittent Spark

[WhitetailRidge]

Completely irregular spark. It's there and then it's not. No specific pattern. It's not there more than it is. Plugs are new, wires old, cap old, rotor old and beaten, ground to short wire missing, I was getting spark directly off the Mag wire but didn't check it repeatedly to see if it was consistent, at this point I'm basically talking myself thru it and waiting to see the obvious answers if I get any. I'll check the mag wire again tomorrow and I guess it would be the cap and rotor at that point if the mag keeps firing.
Thanks for any ideas.

 

[td14steve]

Take the mag apart and clean everything good corrosion etc. clean or replace the cap , sounds like you're on the right track they usually start pretty easy once all of the things on the gas side are in order. Once it warms up on gas it should bang right off in diesel mode. Steve

 

[Mcrafty1]

I might also add, when you're into the mag...take a good hard look at the coil, I have an old 49 AC IB engine that I had the same issue with and started with the plugs and worked my way back, nothing changed until I bought a new coil and when I took the old one out I found a small hairline crack that was hardly noticeable, put the new coil in and it popped of before the engine came up on compression three times, starts perfectly every time now. The crack wasn't even noticeable until I removed the coil from the mag housing. I say all of this because that mag is actually an IH mag someone had put on the engine long before I got it.

 

[WhitetailRidge]

Well I broke it all down today and if this thing isn't all original parts minus the points I'd be surprised. The condenser broke apart as I was taking it out so that's getting replaced, points were a bit blackened so I cleaned them, one spring on the impulse is busted, and the coil has practically melted all the coating off of it so I figure I'll just do a complete rebuild and call it a day. Now it's just waiting on parts. I marked and reassembled everything because I know I'll forget by time parts show up.

 

[td14steve]

let us know how things turn out.

 

[WhitetailRidge]

let us know how things turn out.

Sure thing. Just waiting on parts at the moment.

 

[Shimmy1]

You really should look at finding a distributor.

 

[td14steve]

The starter turns over pretty slow on those, they were designed to be hand cranked the mag works pretty good they will usually fire after a revolution or 2 if all is in good shape.