HELP WITH McCULLOCH 250 CONDENSER AND COIL PROBLEMS

[Echoboy86]

Hi Fellas. I finished a rebuild on a Mac 250 tonight for a mate at work, new seals, crank bearings, rings and a full gasket set. oh, and reeds. I performed a leak down test (both pressure and vaccum) and all was good. Went to fire her up and no spark.

Now before i tore her down she had good spark just tired compression and crumbling seals but, she had spark!!! now nothing!!!

I set the points gap at .45mm or .018 thou which i obtained from Acres model profile. (its a later modle with the black air filter cover but, its not a super.) I set the coil air gap at .30mm or .011 thou.

Could it be that the condenser has given up the ghost??? i doubt its the coil because its my understanding that on points equipped saws its generally the condensers that go and the coils never really fail.

What am i doing wrong??? is there something i'm missing??? Thanks in advance fellas.

 

[67L36Driver]

Double check points gap and make sure no oil on the contact surfaces. Oil is an insulator, not a conductor.

 

[watsonr]

could have a ground on the kill switch, disconnect the kill and try again. And make sure all the connections are good, including the plug wire and the little coil spring inside the boot.

 

[ethar]

Make sure no wires are pinched in good shape with no cracks. If you done all that work to it might as well replace what wires you can with new. I had just a small break in the points wire on a 10-10 and it done the same after i replaced the rope in it. New wire all good now.

 

[Echoboy86]

Cheers for all the suggestions fellas, I'll pick up some contact cleaner, new connectors and some wire and redo all the electrics. I think there might be some oil on the points surfaces too. Either way I'll let you all know how I get on,
Thanks again, Sandy.

 

[workshop]

You can check your condenser with an ohm meter. Negative lead to condenser case, positive lead to pigtail. Should get a reading that rises or falls, just take note which way the meter moves. Disconnect the ohm meter, ground the pigtail to the condenser case to clear residual buildup, and connect ohmmeter positive to condenser case and negative to pigtail. You should get a reading in the opposite direction of the first reading. If so, the condenser in all likelyhood is good. This needs to be done with a digital meter. Easier to read. While it's not the correct way to test them, a proper condenser tester, it does give an indication as to wether the condenser is good or bad. Also, you have to make sure that everything is clean. If you cleaned everything once or twice, clean it again.