A-45 Mag Plate & Water Jacket Fitting.

[T….in Wisconsin]

Picked up an “A-45” last weekend.

There is no spark at either plug and the coil tested negative, fortunately I do have another coil to use.

I have found a few differences from the earlier “A’s ” I’ve worked on.

1. Primary wire is terminated at the Mag plate instead of at the Heal.
2. The Bakelite bushings are used in place of saddle clamps.  Not yet understanding how these work to secure the plugs wire in place?  It appears there’s a slight interference fit between the bushing and plug wire diameters to create a snug fit. Last person that serviced the mag plate soldered the leads to the tabs which may have resulted in the demise of the coil.
3. Diff location of the Condenser and Kill switch wire, no problem.

Water Jacket: It appears the aluminum fitting on top of Jug is threaded on a stud? Looks like this one was damaged when they tried to twist it to remove the  water tubes.

Comments, advice, experiences welcome and appreciated.

 

 

 

[stanley]

Be careful with the Bakelite ferrules,they are fragile.The plug wires run through domed washers which squeeze the wires when the ferrules are screwed into mag plate,holding the wires in place.The water tube elbows are screwed into a threaded plug which is screwed into the water jacket.

[T….in Wisconsin]

I was able to remove the old plug wires without removing the Bakelite ferrules.  I’m not going to remove the ferrules I’ll figure out another way to secure the new plug wires in place.

Thanks for verify the tube elbows are threaded into the plug/stud. I haven’t looked into finding the aluminum elbows, do you know if they are readily available.  The old lines are kinked enough to restrict flow so I’ll be making or finding replacements for those as well.

Thanks

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stanley

[Tom]

Retest continuity on the secondary with the wires removed.

When you tested for spark, did you ground one side and test the other side for spark?

T

[stanley]

I think I have some extra waterline elbows.I’ll check when I get home next week

[T….in Wisconsin]

 

Thanks Stanley, I’m in for the parts & shipping.

[T….in Wisconsin]

No, I did not ground one side while checking the other.  Is this a better practice than just grounding only the side tested as noted below?  Please advise.

I removed the plugs and check each side independent of the other using a typical spark tested. I like to wait until its almost dark in the cave & turn the flywheel with a cordless.  I’ve used this same method on the A-25  next to it on the bench and found it to have spark in one cylinder.

I removed the coil from the Mag Plate and tested finding zero continuity across the secondary. Both coil tabs are also loose and pivot at the connection.

I have another coil from an “A” that failed continuity when checked the same way. I believe both these coils to be bad but plan to hang onto them just the same.

 

 

 

[Tom]

The coil in your motor has one secondary winding.  One wire goes to one plug, the other wire goes to the other plug.  So to check only one side, you need to ground the other to complete the circuit back to the coil.

In any event, your test of the coil directly to the tabs indicates a problem.

Tom

[T….in Wisconsin]

Thank for clarifying.

 

[stanley]

I’ve got one elbow for the top of cylinder and one for the bottom.I do have a coupe of each still in cylinders but it’s always iffy removing them.Message me to let me know what you need.

[Author]

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