Magneto Magnet strength ?

[Julian Murphy]

This is all great stuff.

[will_curry]

Yes it is rather good stuff.

Once Roger gets on with the challenge there will be a broad path
worn to his workshop by Arielists bearing magnetos, me included.

[Roger Gwynn]

Yes and I am nowhere near Finland ... or Antarctica

[SEDoan]

What this means is the "north" end of a compass needle actually is a little N magnet, since it points toward the pole above Finland that is magnetically south. Where a Lucas manual shows a "N" and "S" pole, those are to be taken as the poles that will attract the ends of a compass needle that would point toward Finland and Antarctica. Are you confused yet?...

Whew! Of course!
This picture in the Lucas instructions had me worried I'd really screwed it up. Just mislabeled the poles.

[SEDoan]

Yes and I am nowhere near Finland ... or Antarctica

Glad this is helpful. Looking forward to seeing what you build up.

[Simon.Gardiner]

Excellent contributions gents, many thanks.
Once I get my brain 'unfried' I look into harvesting this thread for a Club 'HowTo'.

SG

[cmfalco]

Once Roger gets on with the challenge there will be a broad path
worn to his workshop by Arielists bearing magnetos, me included.

Even if pole pieces have to be changed for a different type of magneto, the whole process of remagnetizing one might take 2 minutes. Since that isn't an imposition, I've recharged several for acquaintances in town at, ahem, no charge. However, I decline to do any for people out of town. Although it would take the same 2 minutes for the magnetization, the time to unpack, carefully repack, address the shipping label, then drive to a shipper and stand in line to send it would add an hour, which would be an imposition. Plus, if it were damaged or missing on the return, it is the shipper -- me -- who is responsible for filling out all the claim forms and following through.

The nice thing about England is it's so small that you guys all live within 15 minutes of each other. So, one magnetizer in a friendly clubman's hands can do a lot of good. In contrast, the U.S. is a big country, so it requires more than one magnetizer.

[nevhunter]

There's OFTEN other things wrong with the Magneto that have to be attended to before it will work optimally. You can't really do these things for nothing realistically.. Nev

[cmfalco]

There's OFTEN other things wrong with the Magneto that have to be attended to before it will work optimally. You can't really do these things for nothing realistically.

Many people are likely to have the necessary tools to work on a magneto. I think the point is that, no matter what has been done to it, if the armature has been out of the housing, it has to be magnetized.

A magneto will work perfectly fine at, say, 1000 rpm even if the armature had been removed and replaced. Where re-magnetization makes a significant difference is at kick starting speeds. Lucas gives 500 rpm (engine) as the normal kick starting speed and 300 rpm as the lower limit. A remagnetized magneto will generate a mixture-igniting spark below 300 rpm, which might not matter to someone who is 18, but becomes increasingly-important as riders become older.

[nevhunter]

Absolutely. It's also fact that when you kick the bike over, right at the Point the spark occurs the actual rate of turning can be very low as it is when idling slow as well. Not having the throttle open far helps this as you only partially fill the cylinder, reducing the effective compression you have to overcome. Nev