My Magento has this usual plunger on the outside as shown in the photo below. This was connected to a cable pull labeled "Overdrive". I'm pretty sure this is not a overdrive, but what is it? I think it is an engine kill switch but there was nothing else connected and I wanted to try and get confirmation before I end doing something stupid.
H4 Magento Question
- Thread starter JonR
- Start date
Farmallboy2004
New member
The very early H4 mags in 1939 and 1940 were a choke cable pull kill switch. Later ones use the one wire push pull switch to ground the mag out.
Yeah, that was the ground switch used on very early letter series tractors. On pull cables I thought to be original, the knob had the letter "S", which I assume meant "stop".
Many thanks for the replies. The more work I do on this baby the more I begin to understand the design. It's almost like I know what I'm doing. I assume I have to connect the double nutted end of the plunger to a ground or do the bolts holding the Magneto on do the job?
Pulling the plunger grounds the points of the magneto directly to the magneto housing. Assuming the device itself is functioning, all you need to do is pull the plunger to kill the engine.