Jubilee spark to center post not to plugs

[Jim L WA]

The spark wants to go to the least path of resistance, which was probably the distributor shaft. Glad you got him going again.
It is strange though, why it conked out after bogging it down.

 

[Sean in PA]

The spark wants to go to the least path of resistance, which was probably the distributor shaft. Glad you got him going again.
It is strange though, why it conked out after bogging it down.

Maybe the vibrations from bogging down was the straw that cracked the rotor's back (sorry... I couldn't resist)

 

[wore out]

Maybe the vibrations from bogging down was the straw that cracked the rotor's back (sorry... I couldn't resist)

The short version is that when an engine is under heavy load and the governor yanks the carburetor butterfly wide open cylinder filling increases and a higher cylinder pressure when the spark occurs needs higher voltage to "fire" the sparkplugs putting more "strain" on the ignition system.