Frankenstein's magneto

Oct 10, 2004 7 Replies

Seemed simple enough, take one Wico A, correct apart from drive dog and substitute right fitting from *vast stock* of parts.



The outer barrel of the impulse drive which incorporates the drive dog also contains the impulse spring and all the ones I had were anti-clock, but a little thought suggested that turning the spring over would have the desired effect. This was accomplished fairly easily using a jubilee clip as a compressor to get it back in. while I'm at it the pin on which the impulse catch pivots looks a bit worn so I'll put on a better back plate. Pop on the spring barrel and - why won't the impulse wind up? Ah, anti-clock back plate is different. Take it apart and put original back plate back on - the pin wasn't that worn. Ok let's screw it all together again - oh b****r there's



1/4" of threaded shaft left sticking out when the sleeve nut is tightened - now I'll have to take it all apart again and use another armature, what fun!

BTW. Anyone know when the ubiquitous Wico A was introduced?


I had a very similar experience with a Wico A I wanted to change hands on for the Wolseley WDII . I had a (I think) new magneto and a very second hand one and spent a cheerless day discovering that it was (A) not as easy as I thought and (B) one was Imperial and the other was UNF. In the end I gave up and fixed the knackered one to good effect.

This of course means I still have a magneto somewhere - erm, let me think ..........

Regards,

Kim Siddorn,

I pretty sure I was nearly there when dinner stopped play yesterday, another hour or two of parts swapping should do it! Makes one wonder about Wico's production engineering though - the parts inventory must have been enormous with so many variations.

The Wipac master service book is 3/4" thick, the number of permutations of parts runs into many hundreds, but a 'standard' range seems to have come out of it all, still probably 150+

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

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I thought UNF was imperial. I suppose, since they originated in the US, the unified threads should be called Colonial. Is the other one BSF/W?

John

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Actually there are 400 "Standard" specifications.

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

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Done it! I now have a clockwise mag with drive dog to suit Scott PAB and an anti-clock one with 20 tooth sprocket for Scott SE :-)

Don't quote me and I might be wrong as it is a long time since I did this, but I think you'll find that whilst the TPI is the same, the PCD is different. A UNF nut will go about half way onto a BSF bolt and then get stiffer and stiffer.

Regards,

J. Kim Siddorn,

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