Help with D7E pony motor, no sparky....

Never had this issue with this machine, ever, but of course when I need it Friday, it lets me down.... Machine has sat for several months. I figured I would start a thread as I comb through documents to see if I can determine how this machine is wired up.

It appears the distributor is a dist/coil pack assembly so extremely simple. There is just one wire going to it, and two spark plug wires, that's it. What is baffling me at the moment is it appears that one wire is simply grounded by the ignition switch. If you unground the lead, it runs, ground it, it stops...... BUT, when the ign is off, I have near 0 ohms, but when on, I have about 1.5 ohms to ground. I have completely disconnected that lead to the dist and still do not have fire so my instinct is telling me I might not understand the on/off circuit, but there is probably something else going on.....


I pulled the dist cap and everything looks mint in there! Being by myself, I could not push the starter and look at the points though. Does this thing just need the points cleaned? Maybe the condenser/capacitor is bad? I mean, I can certainly test that but did not plan to dig that far.

I verified the wires have 7k resistance and I tested direct from a plug wire to ground.....nada.

Someone tell me how these work so I can troubleshoot in the field better!

File the points. You are working on a magneto, not a distributer.

Ah, that must all be hiding under the next cover because I saw no coil or rotor. It probably runs in an oil bath. Wondering now if I could take my scope to see the AC output from the mag. Just need to ensure I am on the primary side so I don't damage my meter.

Well, I wondered that too, but thought maybe it was jury-rigged like some have, where they've hooked an auto coil up to the mag

Got it! Apparently the old points just needed a little back rub. No biggy. I didn't really have time to look closer at the design but I know it is OEM, not rigged. It appears there might be a magneto running in oil and appeared to be a small coil pack under the dry cap. It was impressively clean in there. Built well.

that pony might be old school, but it works very well, and I don't have $500 in batteries to maintain.

Hi Team,
scans saved from the past courtesy of someone.
Need to ID the article for future reference.
Cheers,
Eddie B.