RT Magneto followup

[dnd]

Earlier this year I was having an issue with the magneto on the 1939 RT I have, had magneto checked out and I had spark. Could not get it to run even somewhat,so went into the carburetor issues and engine timing along with checking and setting all the valves. Had two exhaust valves sticking once I adjusted so loosen those up. Still crazy issues with mag, pondered putting one on from an Allis but was advised on here that the vertical to horizontal springs could be an issue. So I pulled mag off again and proceeded to check out firing on all 4 separately. I took a mounted hub off a junk tractor and made a plate that I could screw 4 spark plugs in. Then I ran the wires from distributor to each plug and turned mag over with a drive I also whipped together and found that I had great spark on 1 and 4 and then once in a while on 2 and 3. So indug into that a bit deeper and the little square drive which hits the post on the side of the mag was somewhat rounded off and did not drive the impulse everything. Took apart and square up shaft and not everything sparked on every impulse.mput back on tractor and all the frustrating issues the last 9 months were resolved. Just thought I would share this for anyone who might run into this in the future. Goes back to the word ASSUME.. I assumed originally if I had good spark on one I would have good spark on the others. Caused a crazy amount of extra work. Dan

 

[molinegb]

Do you mean the pawls or dogs?

 

[dnd]

That’s a great question. Not really knowing the difference, the part I needed to square up was the metal piece that catches on the shaft that causes the impulse to snap over. It was wound a bit round on the end and needed to be trued up square again.
Sorry if that was an idiots answer, almost 70 and still learned which is a good thing. Dan