"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message ...
Its an oldy, but apperas to have bags of compression. Simply was in use,
left up for a winter a couple of years ago, never started since.

Its a ltllet 2-0stroke japanese engine - probably about 25cc or so and I
can;t see any spark - the pllug smells of petrol and we even dribbled
some mix into teh p[lug hole, to no avail.

I whipped off the pull handle and discovered something I hadn't seen
since me dads moped curca 1960. A magneto and some contacts. I adjusted
the gap so it was at least closed some of the time and open some of the
time, but still no visible sparks. I removed the wire off the switch
that stops the thing in case this was faulty, and still no sparks.

First of all, is there some way I can identify that there really are no
sparks? I stuck a car strobe light in series with the plug, but I think
this runs off the LT side of the car not the HT...so probably proves
nothing.


You *can* hold the end of the HT lead while someone gives it a tug. It's not
particularly nice but it won't kill you unless you have a pacemaker or a
weak heart.

Its been years since I fiddled with a magneto, but ISTR that if there is
fuel and a spark these things generally kick a bit and fire if not run.
This ones doing neither.

Is it down to thimgs like stripping out the points and claening them up?


The contacts should be clean and as you say they should open and close. They
should open about 25 thou-ish. Is there a small cylinder anywhere with a
lead coming out of it? If so you might need to replace it.

Si