Villiers MK40, no spark.

My first day as a member so please bear with me. You all must have heard this problem many times before but here goes. My Villiers MK40 engine does not spark so this is what I have done so far. Fitted new coil, (the L.T. lead is down to earth, (not sure if it should do,) new condenser, new H.T. lead, tried many spark plugs. Turned engine over quickly using electric drill and socket but no spark. Points set to 0.012" & 0.015". Can anyone help an 83 year old please. Thank you in hope. Terry.

Hi Terry,
Don't worry we were all new to this once - some a lot longer ago than others

LT down to earth is your problem I'm thinking.  The LT lead should exit the backplate via connection to the insulated pillar. This then is connected to the contact breaker.








If that doesn't fix the problem continue as follows.
If you have a multimeter check that you don't have any short between HT and earth - first at HT terminal then with plug attached.
Stick a piece of paper between the points (to isolate live side) then check again for short on LT side. Check also that the stop button isn't stuck down.  Let me know if you would like a copy of the manual if you don't already have one. I also have some info on magneto theory.

I'm sure that between the lot of us we will get you going.
Good luck

Welcome! as suggested it can only be something simple - keep us posted.

Alan

Thank you Paul & Alan thats very encouraging I will try out tomorrow. Have worked backwards from condenser and points through to connection behind flywheel, then when I connect L.T. wire from coil it all goes down to earth. Will let you know what happens. Terry.

Check my comment about isolating points.

Good evening Paul, carried out a few things on the Villiers MK40 engine. One was to check the H.T. & L.T. leads used two multimeters these were the readings;- H.T. lead average 5.02 on the 20k scale. L.T. lead average 0.4 on the 200 scale. Actually got sparks with plug clamped to engine side using electric drill. and plug gap set at 0.015". Next move tomorrow is to get a plug that I can prove is ok and try to start up. Feeling much more positive now thanks to your suggestions. Terry.

Good evening all. Have done most things to check out the spark problem on my Villiers MK40 engine and depending on which old spark plug I use there are more sparks now and all things seem ok. As the manual says that the correct spark plug is a Lodge H.L.N.18 I contacted ;- "gsparkplug" for advise and they were very helpful although they said the Lodge plug I was after is not made anymore the very kind man at their end gave me lots of info that I did not know such as there are plugs that are good for flywheel magnetos and even plug leads and plug caps that are more suited to flywheel magnetos. So waiting on delivery of plugs, and cap to see what happens then. Oh yes I also found that a plug gap of 0.018" seemed to be best. Will let you know results. Terry.