Saving Old Seagulls

Hello I got a Century (CPC19387l) the other day that will not fire. I have cleaned the points and a new plug still no spark. My question is will the ignition plate off of a 40 plus (SJP1495B4) with the same type of villiers ignition work or would it throw off the timing.

Thanks for any replies,
James Banik

That should work fine. ignition systems are interchangeable.

There won't be a problem with timing - the securing screw nose engages in a hollow on the crankcase, and ensures that it is correct.

Have a look through the F.A.Q. section on this site before dismantling.There are instructions for testing your HT coil ,also the "electric drill trick" may be worth a try.
Good luck.
Steve

The villiers ignition can usually be made working again by taking out the plug and getting the right socket to fit on the nut holding on the flywheel, use an electric drill with the right fitting on the socket and give it a spin for a couple of minutes, this usually gets it going again.
Before that, where the plug lead goes into the magneto take it out and give the hole a spray with electrical spray stuff as I have had a couple that had no spark due to that being dirty.
I have found that the villiers system is better than the wipac and the electronic late model set up.

I pretty sure the ignition is bad the cylinder that your spark plug wire goes into (coil?) spins freely and the one on the other engines I have are fixed. Sorry I dont know the proper names for the parts as I am not a mechanic.

Where the plug lead goes into the magneto there should be a metal wire clip to hold it in with a screw each side of the hole, spinning freely shouldn't make any difference to the spark. the wire clip is there just to stop the lead falling out and hold the contact inside the lead against the spinny part of the magneto.
The inside of the lead should have a metal thingy on a spring.
I am not to sure of the names either, They are a very simple motor.

Well I put the ignition plate from the 40 plus on the century and it started first pull but its running kind of rough. I runs for about 4 seconds then cuts out then revs back up for 4 seconds, etc. Is this an ignition problem or is something wrong with the carb.

Sounds rather like carb to me. Make sure the carb is spotlessly clean.

Hi,

Have just had the same problem with a silver century I have just rebuilt. I swapped over the villiers baseplate+flywheel from my old century and it runs fine.

From above, you say the villiers is actually better than the Wipac?

So, should I bother trying to get the original wipac working? or dump it and stick to villiers? (ie my doner century now has no igntion... so will either have to obtain another villiers or get the wipac working).

The silver century with the wipac may not have been run for ten years, so lost its magnetism.

I know my century was a real problem after only 4 years standing, and required lots of rotation (actually over an hour) to get it re-magnetised last year.

After leaving for a day the silver century with retrofitted villiers igntion, I went to start it last night, and it fired first pull of the string (in fact, the first rotation of the flywheel it fired and ran).... no choke needed (I have removed the shutter anyway.)

Due to the fact I now appeared to have achieved a perfect (running/starting)seagull I will leave this igntion on permanently.