BRP Points Quality

[Mumbles]

For many years, OMC/BRP had their 580148 ignition points manufactured in Turkey and they were of consistent high quality. Then suddenly, almost overnight, the quality disappeared and I don’t know why.

I noticed the same quality issue with the two condensers in a Teleflex (Sierra) Marine 18-5006 tune up kit I recently purchased off Amazon. Both caps were around 0.34 uF when tested, a far cry from the desired 0.20 – 0.22 uF required. The new caps had a much higher uF reading than the old ones I was replacing so I had to search my stash and install two good used ones.

Moral of the story? Just because they are new doesn’t mean they are any good!

[Bob Wight]

I found the same issue on my last couple restoration projects. The points previously fabricated in Turkey always fit perfect but the latest versions just don’t fit properly. I’ve always replaced the points as part of my routine tune-ups but I think from now on, I’ll just clean and re-gap the old points if they are in decent shape.

Bob

1937 Champion D2C Deluxe Lite Twin
1954 Johnson CD-11
1955 Johnson QD-16
1957 Evinrude Fastwin 18
1958 Johnson QD-19
1958 Johnson FD-12
1959 Johnson QD-20

“Every 20 minute job is only a broken bolt away from a 3-day project.”
"Every time you remove a broken or seized bolt an angel gets his wings."

[crosbyman]

Mumbles… according to the extensive testing by mr. Mohat is recent OUTBOARDER articles on condensers ….capacitors up to .47uf had little effect on the actual plug spark voltage when tested on a 7.5hp AD engine. Presumably this would be the same on a whole bunch of common magneto ignitions found on JW CD FD RD etc…

While .22uf got to be the accepted norm .47 uf worked fine. see his comment #3 at the bottom

In fact the extra cap. while possibly…. reducing a bit of spark voltage .. .47uf provides added protection againts arcing across the points 🙂

that said a midway .34uf is not so bad as long as the capacitor meets mr. Mohat’s test box standard .

I have built his “basic test box” and have been quite happy with the results.

Joining AOMCI has priviledges 🙂

[Mumbles]

Well, I’m not so sure about that as I’ve pulled many sets of badly pitted points out of mags which could only be caused by bad or out of spec capacitors. I’m sure the people who designed these ignition systems went to a lot of trouble to determine what uf rated capacitor to use with a certain coil. How you could install a 0.47 uF cap in a magneto designed for a 0.21 uf cap and expect longevity out of the system is beyond me. Sure, it will work at first, but I’m sure the points would be burned or pitted long before their time. If I was stranded ten miles from the ramp and it was getting dark out and starting to rain, sure, I’d do that, but only to get me home. It would then be removed from the motor, framed, and hung on the wall after replacing it with a correct cap with the factory required uF rating.

Something to be aware of are the coils and caps originally used in some 18 – 40 horse motors and early 9.9/15’s. The cap is P/N 581419 and they compliment the original 580197 coils used in these motors. (Not the 9.9/15’s.) The coils look the same as the common 584477 coils but there must be something different about them to require the 0.28 uF 581419 caps instead of the more common 580321 caps. I’m sure if the manufacturer felt one cap would cover all the bases, they would have done that.

[crosbyman]

unless I am wrong I think you worry that extra capacitance would contribute to burning the points faster …

yet as I understand the concept and describded in mr. Mohats article, the extra capacitance would actually increase the protection and keep the points from arching by absorbing the EMF kickback when the primary current collapses at the openning of the points.

the only drawback being a weaker … but still acceptable spark on the plugs ( see article on choosing a capacitor)

Conversely as smaller (below .22uf) would cause MORE points burn up (by absorbing less of the EMF kickack and allowing it to “jumping across the points” which is what we do not neeed).

Joining AOMCI has priviledges 🙂

[Author]

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