ronbarn Posted September 4, 2006 Share Posted September 4, 2006 I?ve heard that confession is good for your soul. Well after this, mine should be better. When I bought my 1911 Hudson it ran great. It started up on battery with 1/2 turn of the crank and ran so good on battery that I would sometime forget to switch to magneto. Then about 5 or 6 years ago, a problem started. It would start, but if I didn?t immediately run around and switch to magneto, the engine would die. So I started taking things apart to find the problem.I am a stickler for taking photographs, making notes, and marking parts during disassembly so when things are repaired and all back together again, everything will work. I thought I found the problem in the magneto, but after putting everything together I couldn?t get the engine to run ? not on battery and not on magneto. Nothing! One of my best friends always says that 95% of all carburetor problems are electrical. But that did not stop me from trying to blame the problem on the fuel system. So that was taken apart. I did not worry about the basic fuel flow since this is a gravity feed and my philosophy was that when gravity fails we have more problems to worry about than an old car not running.For the last five years I have disassembled, reassembled, taken photographs, made notes, and called friends and still could not get the car to run. I even read everything I could find on Bosch Duplex Magneto ignition, or thought I had ? nothing seemed to make sence. And then I found a scribbled note about two articles that appeared in the HCCA Gazette way back in 1992. They were written by an old friend of mine Greg Loftness. I dug into my stack of magazines and found those issues. I read them and they didn?t seem to help much ? I already knew all that. Or, at least I thought so.That night, as I was just approaching a state of sleep and recalled what Greg had in his articles, it dawned on me that for the Duplex system to work the polarity of the magneto has to be in sync with the polarity of the battery part of the ignition. Note in the previous paragraph I had been careful to photograph everything, but photographs do not show polarity. I had neglected to mark the original positions of the magnets. The next morning I ran out to the barn, pulled the magneto, turned the two magnets around, reinstalled the magneto, did all the standard start up steps ? transmission in neutral, gas on, spark retarded, pull the choke, grab the crank and pulled it up 1/2 turn ? and stood there in shock as I heard the engine start running just like it did years ago.Early in the ?repair process?, I must have reversed the magnets on the magneto. Somewhere in the process I must have ?repaired? the original problem, but the reversed magnets prevented me from finding out. The car is now loaded in the trailer and Thursday will be heading for the Reliability Tour in New Hampshire ? Harry Hudson is on the road again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R W Burgess Posted September 5, 2006 Share Posted September 5, 2006 Great news Ron. I hope you and Sally have fun on the tour. Between your soul cleansing and mine, we can both miss church next Sunday. <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />Wayne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1937hd45 Posted September 5, 2006 Share Posted September 5, 2006 Great news Ron, touring in New Hampshire is going to be a lot of fun! What is the intinerary of the tour? There are some world class collections up there. <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Shaw Posted September 15, 2006 Share Posted September 15, 2006 Ron, Great story; can I use it in our BCA PWD newsletter?Mark Shaw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest De Soto Frank Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 Wow. Five years...That's quite a story, Ron ... you're a patient man !!!!I guess even the smallest details become critical...I'm glad you got it solved and running again...I was also sort of amused at your "twilight epiphany"... I seem to have more and more of those "just-as-I-was-dozing-off" revelations as the years go on... <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />Thanks for sharing the learning experience !!! <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1913Moline Posted September 23, 2006 Share Posted September 23, 2006 Ron,I have taken apart a lot of Bosch and other magnetos. Having poles mismatched is a pretty common problem. Your trusty boy scout compass will help you get all the Norths on one side and the Souths on the other. Charging those duplex magnets might be a good plan. (I can help with that)Hope to see you on tour sometime. I am driving a 1913 Moline M-40 now. Had it on the AACA Snappers tour in Warren PA this summer!Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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