On 09/01/2014 13:32, Bob Minchin wrote:
Sandy Taylor wrote:
hi am looking for some advice , trying to get generator started but
there is no spark at plug, all leads seem to be fine , only thing i
noticed that might be wrong is the capacitor , capacitor seems to have
big lump in it which seems to me that it may be burned out , question
is would this stop the plug from sparking ? any advice welcome .

Very likely. No capacitor I've come across has had a deliberate bulge on
it and bulges are often related to an internal fault.
Used to be the sort of thing that car spares places would stock but
maybe less common now that most modern cars don't use Kettering ignition
systems. A garden machinery repair/spares place might be more appropriate.

Agree about the bulge.

Not sure how "modern" stuff like this makes its spark, in "old" systems
with a flywheel magneto there was a set of points to break the induced
current in the primary, and the capacitor served the traditional purpose
of suppressing arcing. In which case removing it temporarily would
confirm if it was the problem without any risk. But maybe it does
something else in a solid state "magneto"?