I have two lawn mowers and a chain saw that all suffer the same problem - lack of spark. I've stripped them all down to check for obvious faults in the wiring, and drawn a blank. They're all points/condesor/coil based, and tend to have magnets in the flywheel to drive the system.

All of three of the items are more than 20 years old, and if I start randomly replacing parts until they're fixed, then it's going to get expensive and I may aswell buy replacements. Is there a locost way to test the coils etc? Or are there point-less upgrades for a decent price? I've heard that in a lot of cases you can replace the condensor with an old capacitor, but I don't really know where to start in terms of sizing one.

I don't really know where to start at all!

Cheers

Gary

I've usually found that if the key/keyway is ok and thr points gap is correct, the coils, windings and capacitor rarely fail. Obviously items that have been damaged may require attention. And always use fresh petrol, once you've found the spark!

Turbo'd and Megasquirt is your answer

LINKY

i had same problem and fitted a set of mini points and 12V battery and it worked a treat, but battery was really heavy.

engine ran great but couldnt move it!




your problem is contamination on the surface of the points --fold sand paper and clean between the points.

this normally works. (after winter job usually)

IC

Cheers guys. I didn't realise points gap was so crucial - setting them to 20 thou seems to have sprung all three in to life! One of the mowers still needed a carb strip and clean out, and the chainsaw obviously still has carb issues, but that's huge progress over all.

Thanks again.