Hi Blue and Gizmo,
Thanks for your tips, I shall have a bit of a better look at it in the morning and the points issue certainly makes a lot of sense. One thing to consider is that this "Supercut" SB mower is an all original unit that has probably never been played with in this area of the motor but has been sitting idle for well over 5 years outdoors under a carport in the Adelaide Hills.
I've just gone out to the ute and brought it inside (wife already gone to bed, that's a good start) The black on the plates is in fact black paint that's flaking off, the point contact faces could certainly do with a clean as they are white all over the flats. I had already resoldered the plug connector back onto wire as that had come adrift.
As far as timing is concerned I notice that this one differs somewhat from the C12A that I also have. The flywheel has a wind on with centre nut set up and there is a timing mark on both the outer housing and also on the flywheel itself and I've noticed that the opening you guys can see on the magneto which allows you to see the points is a swinging window that is still in the same position as it was when I removed it, thus it was in the open position when it should (IMHO) be closed to stop any muck getting into that area. So from that maybe someone many years ago had the flywheel off and didn't put it on in the correct position. Now all I need to know is the actual procedure on how to set the timing up after I clean the points and then I might have a better idea of what I'm still up against or with some luck it might just work as it should.
Any help would again be appreciated as I can't find any sort of workshop manual on this motor, just an operators manual on eBay which has a parts listing in it. I've already previously received a parts listing from Rustic Spares. (thanks John)
Cheers,
BB.
