Work continues... now the ignition system...
My KZ2 uses a RB magneto for ignition. I have seen too many vintage cars stopped on the side of the road with magneto failure, even after the owners have spent hundreds of dollars getting them reconditioned. And there is a very good reason why aircraft engines run two mag.s!
I like having my cars 100% authentic but they need to be reliable as well. My brother is restoring a 1914 Fiat Tipo Zero and he also wants the car to be correct but trouble free, so we have been thinking how to keep the right look but make them better.
A magneto is really just a distributor which makes it's own HT spark. Could we find a way to feed spark in to the distributor part of the magneto from a coil hidden out of sight somewhere?
Here are two magnetos. the one on the left is the one which will go in the car, the one on the right is the spare. Note the brass fitting on top of the locator peg on the magneto i am going to use
This is the magneto I am using. The magnets have been removed and replaced with a steel cover so it no longer generates any spark, but the armature has been kept to provide the inertia and drag for the automatic advance to work correctly
The top peg is the original. The bottom one is the new one my brother has made with the fitting for the coil lead to feed the spark to the distributor part of the mag.
It works perfectly on the bench, firing four spark plugs in a dummy cylinder head so we are confident it will work on the car. I will let you know when the motor is running!
Of course the other issue this creates is the ignition switch itself. With magneto ignition, when the key is turned to the "off" position it completes the circuit and shorts out the mag. With coil ignition, we need to break the circuit to stop the flow of current to the distributor. And of course the combined light/ignition switch has been rebuilt alreadya nd I really don't want to risk pulling it apart and trying to modify it. Something else for me to ponder, I guess.
