no spark on my fortyplus

[frank avey]

i live in leeds ,
i am not getting a spark on my fortyplus ,have cleaned and reset points gap,changed coil.tested ht lead ,
i want to set about restoring the engine but want to make sure i can get it running as i dont want to have to keep taking it apart once i start to restore it,it did run fine but has been stood for a couple of years in the shed ,it turns over and mechanics are fine ,just the electrics are getting the better of me.
help needed ,thanks
frank.

[Horsley-Anarak]

Does it have a villiers coil ignition?

H-A

P.S. engine number or pictures will help

[frank avey]

eng no is
fpc 1283ee8
built in may 1978 and has wipac 111 ignition .
hope this is of some use .
thanks . frank.

[Horsley-Anarak]

I think it is Wipac 2 with a bronze flywheel.

Do you get a tingle off the HT lead if you turn it over by hand?

H-A

[Oyster 49]

Try spinning up the flywheel using a drill, as per the FAQs on the SOS website? Take the plug out first!

[frank avey]

your right it is a wipac 2 ,even though it has wipac 111 on the coil but have checked with photos and its definately wipac2 dont get anything through the ht lead ,i,ve spun it with a drill to remagnetise and that hasnt done it,getting it checked with a voltmeter later today ,hopefully can find where its going wrong,will let you know how i get on.
trying to solve this is doing my head in ,
thanks all .
frank, leeds.

[Todd]

Frank, there's a quite good magneto troubleshooting aid here;

http://assets.fluke.com/appnotes/electr ... 271b_u.pdf

[frank avey]

thanks for the replys,
just waiting for delivery of a circuit tester/ohms, then i can have a good look at the electric components to see what letting the ignition down,thanks to todd for the link as i,ve not used a meter before so the link is a great help to a novice like me.

[frank avey]

help needed again ,
what do i set the multimeter to read in the ohms scale to check ignition and coil.
ranges available are as follows ,2m-200k-20k-2000 which is the continuity setting and 200.
have checked with the beeper on the continuity setting and get a beep from the points to the coil and touching around the coil on the magneto pickups beeps as well but am getting nothing out of the coil where the ht lead lead comes out ,does this mean a break and so a duff coil.
am i doing it wrong or do i have have the meter on the wrong ohms setting.
i bought another coil and seems unlikely to have two that are duff,
if anyone replys please realise i,m a complete novice with a multimeter so make your answers as though you where talking to the village idiot and i should be able to work it out,fingers crossed.
thanks again .
frank ...leeds.

[Keith.P]

Have a look at this, this should get you on your way.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT8rk5QWgS0

Or

http://www.saving-old-seagulls.co.uk/fo ... f=2&t=1832

[frank avey]

watch the link and was very informative.
the only problem was the man in the video said the meter has to be set to 1000ohm range and both mine and my neighbours does not have 1000ohm scale.
checked the primary circuit at 2000 ohm range and got a reading but the secondary gave no reading at all but seeing as it wasnt at 1000 ohms the data was different to what the man said so couldnt compare.
i checked the reading on a second coil i bought and both gave similar readings so dont think they can both be shot,how often does a coil on a fortyplus pack in and whats the chance of two going duff.
does anyone have figures for checking with a digital tester that works in the ohm scales of ,2m-200k-20k-2000-200,so i can retest and finally bin both coils if there no good just dont want to keep buying more parts that might not work.
one good thing ,i,m learning more day by day at least now i know what a primary and a secondary coil is and how to go about testing them if i can get the reference figures to compare to.
i dont know about saving old seagulls,i think i,ll need saving ,feel like my heads gonna explode,i,m off for a rest.
thanks all.
frank, leeds.

[Horsley-Anarak]

Hang in there Frank.

Just been down the shed to dig out Wipac coil.

Set your meter to 20K ohm range, hold one probe on the HT outlet contact and the other one on the magneto base.

Mine reads 5.10 K ohm, that means the secondary winding is OK.

On the same scale the primary winding should read 0.00.

I have had a couple of duff ones, but the villiers ones are far more likely to be faulty.

Good luck

H-A

[Charles uk]

Here's one that 40 tpi measured some time ago

[frank avey]

had one coil sat on radiator overnight to see if any moisture could be causing it to not work,
just used 20k ohms scale and got a reading of 4.92 on the secondary and 0 on the primary as you said ,
does this mean this coil is okay as the reading is very near to what you got.
my other spare coil i,ve just tested and got readings 4.75 secondary and 0 on the primary .
does this mean my spark problem is not coil related because if so that only leaves the points and i have cleaned and set to 0.5 mm ,i also have a spare set of points and had both on the engine with the same result,no spark .
its not the ht lead as nothing is coming out of the ht outlet on the coil as i have tested this seperately with the ht lead off.
really appreciate the help and learning more everyday.
thanks again ,
frank.

[frank avey]

just built up again and still no spark,getting a reading of 4.53 down the seagull ht lead on the 20 ohm scale and to further confuse things i put a car ht lead on it to see if the seagull one was a duff and that gave a reading of 19.53 on the same scale.
any ideas,
frank.