dart451 wrote:KE4AVB, Thank you for your diligence! I've never seen a distributor like this!? I assume this whole box is the distributor?... Here is a pic
That's a magneto. I'd bet it's Fairbanks-Morse
- Actually used to be several businesses around that specialized in them - One of them used to be a Briggs & Stratton distributor we first signed up with way back in 1987 .. could order our briggs parts and then drive over and pickup the order same day,no shipping.
However, the magneto business largely disappeared but Im sure there's still a few specialist places you can ship them out to for rebuilds , if you don't feel confident in being able to do one yourself.
They are basically a self-contained ignition with their own "flywheel" (spring loaded magnet rotor), primary and secondary coils, points,condenser,rotor,distributor cap, etc just driven off one of the engine gears (usually the cam shaft) , you could actually be mean and give yourself (or someone) a hefty jolt by turning the gear in the right direction while holding it in your hands and having anything anywhere near the rotor or coil secondary.. Turn, turn, turn, you can feel spring load up,and then *SNAP* there goes the spark.
How poor are they who have not patience. What wound did ever heal, but by degrees? - Iago (Othello Act II, Scene 3)