Gettin very weak spark from my mag . not even enough to make the bike fire . checked points and condencer everything fine there . even filed them for good measure . still nuthin . checked with meter and the mag seems to be groundin . on what I do not know cause nuthin seems to be out of the norm . wires all look good and everything . dont get it everything you touch inside the mag seems to have a ground on it . the coil has a hairline fracture in it but nuthin that would look like would cause any prolems . do any of you know what might be causein this thing to be groundin keepin it from throwin a good spark ? like I say from the looks of things everything looks in order and I cant seem to find nuthin touchin nuthin . the mag is firin but it is very very weak . not even enough to get to the plugs .

can you hear anything strange like arcing?  
did you wash the bike recently (water infiltration)
Try firing it in the dark and look for arcing.

Cra

No I have not washed it lately nor have I heard any arcin inside not to say it aint happenein but I havent heard any . I have not tried rollin it over in the dark but I will try . Every once in a while the bike will fire but that is few and far in between . Most of the time it is just a dead kick . I walkd out in the garage couple days ago and kicked a few times and it fired up . It ran very poorly backfirein and skippin but it did run for a few minuites . I let off the throttle to just let it idle a bit and it went dead and has not yet cranked again . It did fire a couple times for me this mornin but never did crank . It has been gettin harder and harder to crank for a while .

i aint got a clue mayn have ta checked the muffler bearins  they go bad from time to time   heeeheeeee   now dont go throwin stuff at me      do ya have a new condenser or even another one

the only thang I cant figure out is . why is the mag got a constent ground on it . I aint no mechanic but I dont think it is supposed to be that way . I know when it rolls over it grounds then but this thing is groundin just sittin there

do yall think I might have a bad coil ?

maybe i dont thin the coil should be grounded all the time   but i surely aint no expert  un hook the wire or wires an check from the wires to the leg an see if its shorted should have no cont there   wheres mack when ya need him

Check for leakage on your plug wires too.  Might just be bleeden fire out the wires.

Like Cracky said, good and dry an try the dark trick too.

Might be that crack in the coil.  It doesn't take very much.  

If all that is good ya might see if you can pull it appart while it is on the bike.  The natural magnets do get weak over time so they may be headen south.  I also think, I'm not sure though, that the armeture will start to magnatize over time as well.  It then needs to be "de goused" or replaced.

The best source for Magneto info I have found is Buck at Goblin.  Try checken his web page and if it isn't on there give him a call.  He does rebuilds pretty reasonable too.

done put new wires on it and that idt do a thing . put a new set of autolites in it too . hattin had time to do the dark thing yet but I am thinkin that maybe the crack in the coil might be the prolem . I sent Buck an email so I am hopin to hear back from him in a day or so .

You should be seeing a ground through the coil.  The way it works is the points make
a circuit through ground and a small portion of the coil which the rotating magnet
induces a current in.  When the points open stopping the current the magnetic flux
field collapses inducing the spark in the whole coil.  Simple but it can be touchy.  If the
condenser is bad it'll shut the thing down and if there's any leakage anywhere it's bad.
That crack could be allowing leakage to ground which would cause problems.  Any
moisture in the mag can cause a bad problem, I use beeswax on the gasket to seal out
the water.  A friend was having problems with the mags on his plane, the mechanic painted
the inside of the cases with melted beeswax and that stopped the problem.  If you can
get some beeswax you might try smearing it into the crack to see if that has any effect.
I'd probably throw a condenser at it first because it's cheaper but I'd bet it's that cracked
coil.  Another thing, you should be running non resistor wires and plugs.  Morris has some
recomendations for plugs, I run Harley 3-4 plugs but my heads are the short reach type.
Check http://www.morrismagneto.com.

Mack

Thanks Mack I have been hopin to hear from you . Yeah I have been runnin harley 4's in mine to but I was fresh out and had to use what I had layin around . The wires are non resist. I did some more research last night and came across some aviation site that had some tech question and answers about mags . I came to the conclusion to that the condenser was be the smartest place to start with parts . Readin some of the imfo I discovered that that a bad one can cause me the same prolems as i am having . So I called and got me a condenser on its way should be here thursday . But if that dont work I was gonna try th coil . But I had to try the condenser first for the money difference . But I sure do appreciate your knowledge Mack . you tellin me that I feel like I am headed in the right direction .

I was glad to see Mack show up too....lol  I know enough about Mags to know I don't know nutten.

I don't have that much experiance with them myself, I had a couple of
weeks of instruction in A&P school but I've worked on nothing but
turbines since.  I've run one on the shovel for a couple of years and have
a little insight on them.  One of the things that's gone wrong with mine
is the condenser, it was the kind that has the bracket soldered to the
case rather than having a clamp that holds the base.  That bracket came
loose.  It would start ok but once I got rolling it'd start bouncing and cause
it to cut in and out.  I found that if it starts being hard to start it's likely
the points.  Most important is to keep it water tight, moisture inside will give
you all kinds of trouble, don't open it on a rainy day if you can avoid it.  I
did that once and had to take the cap off and wipe it on my shirttail every
time I wanted to start it for a week.

Mack

well fellas I put in a new condenser today and that did absolutly nuthin . I also checked it all out in the dark and that told me that I am gettin absolutly no fire anywhere that I can see . So I guess it is back to the drawin board . I am gonna try a new coil I guess and see if in desperation that fixes it . I think the fuggar heard me when I said I was gonna sell it and now is just bein stubbern and want crank .

Another thing I've heard of happening is the rotor loseing it's magnetism.  You might
check that, should be pretty easy.

Mack