Wico magneto fiber sliders?

[amuller]

An earlier style of Wico mag used by West Bend (Elgin, etc) uses a fiber (or Bakelite, or something similar) sliding piece to ride on the cam and transmit motion to the points. These have a notch on each side, closer to one end than the other. Does anyone know which end is supposed to ride on the cam, or whether it matters? I don’t see any obvious reason why it would matter, but presumably Wico had some reason for putting them there.

[amuller]

Turned out the answer was obvious on installing the points–the slot provides clearance for the little tit on the point set that keeps it aligned with the slot in the stator plate. So, the slot goes closest to the cam.

[Buccaneer]

I "think" the last ones I had apart on a Martin, the notch was closest to the cam.
A little "nub" on the bottom of the points assembly went in the
slider notch. I presume this was just to keep the sliders from falling
out when removing the mag plate.

Prepare to be boarded!

[Buccaneer]

Looks like you were answering your own question as I was typing, lol

Prepare to be boarded!

[amuller]

quote Buccaneer:

Looks like you were answering your own question as I was typing, lol

Yes, I was. But I think your explanation is also valid!

Wico made an incredible number of different flywheel magneto designs, some of which seem rather odd to me.

Anyway, my report is that the OMC coils and condensers seem to produce a good spark when mounted on the Wico plate. The remaining task is to figure out how to secure the leads effectively, since they normally fasten to the post of the Wico condenser and that’s no longer available.

[Buccaneer]

I’ve seen the "post" style Wico condensers available somewhere for about $15 each.
Found the vendor…….
http://martinoutboards.com/product/cond … oscrewtop/

On my Elgin with that style condensers, I disabled the old condensers by cutting
off the bottom and filling them with silicone, then remounted them, and used
the old Wico condenser post to attach the "Orange Drop" capacitors to.
There should be a thread on this board regarding this.

Found photo I took after "orange drop" installation.

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