OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Victa Two Stroke Engines Super weak spark

Hi everyone!

I picked a (another)160cc Victa engine, the full crank one with points ignition. It was just a bare engine, no cowlings, carb or even decompresser. The problem is that is has no spark, I have got a tiny little spark out of it twice with the plug lead less than half a mil away from the metal. Also if I plug the lead into my spark tester(which is more or less a light bulb that clips between the end of the lead and either the spark plug or the block) then the tester flashes(showing there is electricity going though it). How ever, there is not enough spark to jump across a spark plug gap. So I pulled the flywheel off and it all looked okay, everything was very clean! I swapped the condenser from a dead 125 I have and still exactly the same problem, cleaned the points, same again. I swapped the whole 125 ignition system over and still the same problem! I even tried the 125 flywheel!

I've been trying to pull the flywheel off another dead points ignition 160 but no luck so far.

Any ideas what the problem is? The 160 has no kill switch wire if that helps (neither did the 125). The 160 also had the mount for a plastic carb.

Also, what should I torque the flywheel nut to?

Thanks

Hayden

did you test with a new spark plug
have you checked that the points are actually opening and closing?

Yep, tried with a few different spark plugs. The points were opening and closing fine, I set the points gap to about .4 mm(I think that's about right?) ,I tried many different gap settings too, still no spark .

Thanks

Hayden

I also tried sitting the metal part of the lead a few mm away from the fins on the head, that's how I got the very small and weak spark as mentioned in my first post.(Although the end of the lead was less then a mm away from the fin when it sparked.)

Thanks

Hayden

The magneto is not very complicated. If the points are clean and have low resistance when closed, they are opening and closing, the wires are continuous and not grounding out anywhere, the flywheel is still magnetized, and the laminated steel core of the coil almost touches the flywheel on both sides of its center, then you have a bad component: condenser or coil.

When you tried a different magneto, do you know the replacement one worked before you removed it? Are you sure it was grounded properly when you installed it? Did it work again when you put it back in the original mower?

There is no witchcraft involved here, the system is rather simple.

I agree with you grumpy and would first start with the replacing the condenser first then move to the points before going to the most expensive part the coil because it is not that often the coil breaks down on the old victa's.

Hi, I am very familiar with how an ignition system works. I think it was the condenser in the end. I swapped the whole ignition system from another 160 and it worked fine.

Could someone please tell me what I should torque the flywheel nut too? I'l make the donation to access the parts manuals when my friend(and their paypal account)get back from holidays.

Thanks

Hayden

if there is a specific torque i havent done it, as tight as i can with a normal 1/2" drive ratchet seems to be good enough

I can't find a torque specification for the flywheel nut either. For an aluminium flywheel, 40-55 Nm should be suitable - I'd stay toward the lower end of that range myself.