sorry if this was already mentioned but what about the ground wires from the points that get routed under the mag plate. i know they get sandwiched pretty good under there. just a thought. possible intermittent short to ground?

Jacques, ref back to your post about “seal ” and spark…. the issue we found was not seal, but either bearing failure or worn crank shaft causing lateral movement of the crankshaft/ breaker cam.  Better explained in posts 330662 and 330677. A strange thing for sure, but that is what we found.

Joe B

mike n wrote:

sorry if this was already mentioned but what about the ground wires from the points that get routed under the mag plate. i know they get sandwiched pretty good under there. just a thought. possible intermittent short to ground?

Mike, those are not actually “ground wires”, they are the “stop switch leads”.  So, when the key switch is turned “off”, those leads are connected together cancelling spark on both cylinders.  I remember you reporting that you disconnected those leads right under the mag plate, but the issue continued.  So, to me, that would vindicate the key switch vacuum cut out, etc.   Now, it is possible that one of those leads was chafed/partially shorted to ground which would cause an issue….But the short would have to be somewhere on/under the mag plate where the leads are routed and tightly clamped.   It seems unlikely that this issue would have changed by swapping the original mag plate to a different powerhead…  But, “never say never”….