Lost Spark!

[DanielV2]

I cranked up the '49 over the weekend to cultivate my garden and when it started, it was running pretty rough. I decided to give it a try as is and of course it died on me in the field and I could not get it to crank. I dragged it back to the shop and went hunting. I found that cyl. 3 and 2 had lost spark. I pulled those plug wires off the distributor and stuck by volt meter lead into the socket to see if I could ground it out but nothing happened. I ran out of time this weekend to go any furthur. I was going to open up the magneto and check the points and condenser next. Does anyone have any better suggestions? It is a magnetor with an external coil.

Thanks, Daniel V

[SONNY]

No matter if magneto or distributor it sounds to me like bad cap.--look in the back of the cap for carbon tracking or just really black/burned wire holes---they all should be clean.--also make sure the wires are good and the right type.---I always use solid copper core wires on mine. thanks; sonny

[Gary Dotson]

It could be the cap but I think it's most likely that your point gap has closed a little. The points only set at .013", so it doesn't take much wear on the rub block to lose your gap. A general magneto servicing is in order.

[DanielV2]

Point gap was almost zero. Adjusted to .013 and all is well. Thanks guys!