Paul, the group are best situated to give answers to a friends problem.
He is restoring an old hand pushed sycle  mower powered by a good old
villiers engine.  The ignition is however cactus and no parts
available.   Apparently the museum is not as "pure" as others and is
willing to have an alternative ignition system fitted.  I am assuming
that there is no spark advance in these engines??  What is a simple
alternative ignition for an old engine such as this?

Neil Unger

I think there are systems on the market that one can program
spark advance. Maybe MSD.

Just put "programmable spark advance" in Google.

Of course the Motec EFI can do that.

We don't need spark advance for the aircraft rotary as it runs
over 5000 RPM the vast majority of time so I recommend
setting  it 22 degrees BTDC and leaving it there.
A lot of the racers do that as they never get below 8000 RPM.

Any CD system will work with an old engine with no spark advance or dwell time.
Ordinary old fashion coils need dwell time which is provided for
with old points type distributors.

However the old coils will also work with CD systems.

Send me some pictures of the front of the engine if you have them.


Paul Lamar

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