Lubrication of Magneto Oiler Felt

[crosbyman]

exactly the felt on the picture trials the cam in a clockwise direction

in the text it says it needs to rub “against the cam” does that imply… against the rotation on simply with the rotation.. leaning on the cam as in the picture 🙂

Joining AOMCI has priviledges 🙂

[amuller]

Does anybody really know how greasing the cam compares with using the felt wiper? Or doing both? Seems to me that cars with points generally used grease, but a few had wipers. Magnetos mostly used wipers.

[Mumbles]

Greasing the points cam on cars was easy. Just had to pop the distributor cap off to gain access. OMC in their wisdom probably realised the average outboard owner didn’t have a flywheel puller handy and the mag wouldn’t be getting serviced for a long, long, time so a wick would help lube the cam between those intervals. Just my thought.

While riding my motorcycle years ago, there was a heck of a squeaking noise coming out of it which I had trouble finding. It ended up being a dry points cam. This Harley didn’t have a wick.

[jeff-register]

I used Petro-gell. Like a very light grease made from mineral oil. Comes in toothpaste tube sizes. Looks translucent . Looks like the same stuff a guy gets in tune up kits with points & capacitor, the cap full. Then my old Firestone said to use mineral oil as a mixer for fuel, never did, used OMC mix. Can’t believe so much dried hard dirt & grease I have wiped off the points cam.

JIM, Me too, 1954 Panhead with the 3 brush 6 volt genny, remember?

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by jeff-register.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by jeff-register.

[rudderless]

As for wick orientation its kinda like the old self energizing drum brakes. If the wick merely rode on the cam with wick trailing, it will eventually get beat back…the cam tries to bend the wick away from the cam.

If the wick is leading it will be dragged towards the cam as the cam rotates. The cam tries to straighten the wick towards the cam, keeping contact.

…ya don’t want a bent wick..

[todd281]

Just my two cents, I use spray chain lube , remove the wick, spray it , then replace it. Its advertised as “wont fly off” so it seems good for this application .So far I have not had any bad results. I do this every time I do a tune up . I usually start with the thought , ” I’m just going to change out the plugs. ” and end somewhere just shy of a rebuild.

[drifter]

Part of my IBM career was field engineering service. Many of the machines used very high speed cams. Some were 6″ long and 1″ in diameter. In some cases they had 12 followers riding on the cam.
Were talking about machine run time of nearly 24-7. All of these cams were wicked. All of these cams ran with grease impregnated wicks. For me, I cut a wick, then I take a medium grease and work it
into the felt for several minutes followed by lightly wiping any surface grease off.
just my experience and my way of doing it.

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amuller

[outboardnut]

Drifter- what do you cut a wick from??

[crosbyman]

furniture sticky pads are about the correct thickness… and texture install felt side on cam !

your parts bin may have some pads in it 🙂 they come with points these days

Joining AOMCI has priviledges 🙂

[amuller]

That is interesting. I have assumed that wicks should not be greased as it would prevent movement of the lubricant. I’ll try it your way.

[Author]

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