The March Muppet
Member
I have a gen set that was abandoned by the former owner, found in a corner of the shed and brought back to life a few years ago.
It uses one of the new style "ignition modules", as opposed to the old points magneto setup. As far as I can tell a sweeping magnet on the flywheel couples then collapses a mag field in the coil core, generating HV, although sweeping a magnet across one of these units on the bench appears to do nothing.
This module regularly "fails", and on a whim during the initial necromance, I cleaned the rust from the business end of the laminations that oppose the magnet. Voila!
Same again today.
Anyone know why rust on the core appears to be a failure mode? Permeability something? Shunt something?
Is the same true for old tube gear input trafo's? I've salvaged a few over the decades, now a bit rough and rusty to the eye - I'd hate to pooch one powering it up if it should be filed shiny.
(MOT's seem to get along fine with the laminations welded together)
As well, these ignition modules. Sure, I know there other ways, but they don't seem to be shielded. Kind of looks like a "primary" winding added externally may make them of some tinker use?
It uses one of the new style "ignition modules", as opposed to the old points magneto setup. As far as I can tell a sweeping magnet on the flywheel couples then collapses a mag field in the coil core, generating HV, although sweeping a magnet across one of these units on the bench appears to do nothing.
This module regularly "fails", and on a whim during the initial necromance, I cleaned the rust from the business end of the laminations that oppose the magnet. Voila!
Same again today.
Anyone know why rust on the core appears to be a failure mode? Permeability something? Shunt something?
Is the same true for old tube gear input trafo's? I've salvaged a few over the decades, now a bit rough and rusty to the eye - I'd hate to pooch one powering it up if it should be filed shiny.
(MOT's seem to get along fine with the laminations welded together)
As well, these ignition modules. Sure, I know there other ways, but they don't seem to be shielded. Kind of looks like a "primary" winding added externally may make them of some tinker use?
Last edited: