Ariel Owners Motorcycle Club

Probably a very naïve question but I haven't got a clue, so here goes. The rebuilt mag is now fitted to the bike and is giving a cracking spark. It is also successfully earthed to a push button on the handlebars to kill the engine. My question is, which of the two h/t terminals goes to which cylinder? I can't see any markings on the mag and there's nothing in the original handbook.

Thanks, Frank

It doesn't matter which way round you wire them, provided that the spark appears at the correct cylinder. If you take one of the pickups off and look at the slip ring whilst turning the magneto you will see a brass insert in the slip ring. When this is next to the pick up you have taken off, that pickup should be connected to the spark plug of the cylinder on the firing stroke. But it is easier, just to time the magneto and try to start the bike. If it fires up, the leads are the right way round. If it is not at all interested in firing up, swop the leads round and she will go.

Thanks Paul. I was a bit worried about that when I once got a couple of plug leads wrong on my first car, a Standard 10! The bang from the exhaust got the street out as they thought somebody was shooting. That was in the days when shooting in the street wasn't as usual as it is today.

I remember a friend working on a Morris 1000 van. He then tried to start it by towing it around our Somerset village. . . . .

Eventually it fired - leaving a large black 'blast mark' on the road. The silencer ended-up as a flat piece of tin clinging to the floor pan .

That woke the village up.

Still makes me laugh.

Bob.

Get the whole system full of fuel vapour and you have a lot of energy there... Nev