Show whole topic
Jun 08, 2009 7:38 am
Jun 08, 2009 7:38 am
Subject: Re: magneto for 2 litre
At Bob's request I will try to upload a few more pictures of my engine with the Scintilla GN4 and the clamps etc. sometime after this week - at the moment I am not in England.
However, on the picture I provided you can see the spring-steel clamps and the single bolt on top which tightens the clamps perfectly around the body of the magneto. The width at the bottom is also exactly that of the magneto so there can be no lateral movement. The bottom plate is fixed on the engine with three large "sunken-head" bolts.
This fitting is both solid and simple; changing the magneto on my car is a matter of only a few minutes. (Don't forget to mark the crown wheels and coupling individually for both magnetos though - using different colours paint is the most practical way).
Although, as I said, I carry a spare in the boot of my car I have never had to use it. My Scintilla GN4 always works fine - but Alan Fairbrother put a modern condenser inside which lasts forever, unlike the original ones.
I bought the spare GN4, completely restored, for 350 pounds three years ago - not very cheap, but today they cost 450 pounds from the same supplier. I bid on an unrestored (but very nice looking) one on Ebay last year but my offer of 155 pounds was not enough...
Interestingly, I asked Alan Fairbrother about the "big Simms" and he says that they are actually designed for use on busses, and do not perform well above 3000 revs! That seems unlikely to me as one is fixed on a Lagonda which apparently runs fine. But Alan is a great magneto expert and the size of the thing certainly suggests that it is for use in larger vehicles.
At Bob's request I will try to upload a few more pictures of my engine with the Scintilla GN4 and the clamps etc. sometime after this week - at the moment I am not in England.
However, on the picture I provided you can see the spring-steel clamps and the single bolt on top which tightens the clamps perfectly around the body of the magneto. The width at the bottom is also exactly that of the magneto so there can be no lateral movement. The bottom plate is fixed on the engine with three large "sunken-head" bolts.
This fitting is both solid and simple; changing the magneto on my car is a matter of only a few minutes. (Don't forget to mark the crown wheels and coupling individually for both magnetos though - using different colours paint is the most practical way).
Although, as I said, I carry a spare in the boot of my car I have never had to use it. My Scintilla GN4 always works fine - but Alan Fairbrother put a modern condenser inside which lasts forever, unlike the original ones.
I bought the spare GN4, completely restored, for 350 pounds three years ago - not very cheap, but today they cost 450 pounds from the same supplier. I bid on an unrestored (but very nice looking) one on Ebay last year but my offer of 155 pounds was not enough...
Interestingly, I asked Alan Fairbrother about the "big Simms" and he says that they are actually designed for use on busses, and do not perform well above 3000 revs! That seems unlikely to me as one is fixed on a Lagonda which apparently runs fine. But Alan is a great magneto expert and the size of the thing certainly suggests that it is for use in larger vehicles.