Magneto and distributor gear timing

Working on my 41 H last night. Changed points and repacked grease in the distrubtor gear/pinion gear case in the h-4 magneto. The gears fell out and now I think I put it back together incorrectly because the engine will not start. Saw two dots on the distrib gear and a scratch mark on the pinion. tried to line those up. I guess I was wrong. Can anyone help?

try bringing #1(fwd) cylinder piston to to dead center on compression stroke and see if there is any kind of a mark on timing gear, dot, line,camfered tooth ect. then rotate the distribtor/mag till rotor is pointing to #1 terminal on cap and see if dis/mag drive will line up when gear is installed with dots meshed with timing mark on gear. this should get you close enough to adjust dis/mag by rotating till the points just start to open. good luck, d.coleman

Don't guess at it. Use the marks on the gears, as explained on these pages. For an H, you set it for right hand rotation.

http://www.cleancomputes.com/Cub/Blue%20Ribbon%20Service%20Manuals/GSS-5035%20Service%20Manual%20Magnetos/Page%2051.jpg

http://www.cleancomputes.com/Cub/Blue%20Ribbon%20Service%20Manuals/GSS-5035%20Service%20Manual%20Magnetos/Page%2052.jpg

(quoted from post at 14:39:40 09/29/10) Don't guess at it. Use the marks on the gears, as explained on these pages. For an H, you set it for right hand rotation.

http://www.cleancomputes.com/Cub/Blue%20Ribbon%20Service%20Manuals/GSS-5035%20Service%20Manual%20Magnetos/Page%2051.jpg

http://www.cleancomputes.com/Cub/Blue%20Ribbon%20Service%20Manuals/GSS-5035%20Service%20Manual%20Magnetos/Page%2052.jpg

Click to expand...

I know this is an old thread, but it had exactly the info I needed, except it is not working. 8( My '39 H is laughing at me.

My mag is timed to the first cyl TDC on compression stroke. I've had my wife and my step-daughter's boyfriend both step thru the procedure with me, and I'm confident I have it down. The impulse coupling clicks as the first of the two pulley marks passes the pointer. My problem is on the other end of the mag.

With the timing mark lined up, the rotor points to 12:30-01:00 instead of 02:00 where the #1 tower is. I have had the rotor gears apart and verified that the tooth with a notch cut in it is in fact exactly lined up with the "R" on the rotor hub. Some PO had even scribed a line to follow from the R down to the gear notch.

The tractor was running fine til the condenser died. I remember the last time I had this thing apart I had to make one tweak after it was running. It seemed to be retarded a wee bit much, and had a flame out of the short pipe at WOT after dark. I adjusted the rotor gear one notch, and it ran for months flawlessly until the spark died. It would start on the 1st or 2nd pull, consistently. even in cool weather.

I posted on here about an issue I was having getting it running. With the #1 at TDC on compression, the rotor was pointing at #3 tower, not #1. I adjusted the plug wires to match, and the tractor started and ran fine, after that gear rotor tweak I mentioned above. And I worked it pretty hard w/ a 6" mower cutting some bahaia. Basically, the issue there was I didn't know to turn the mag til the rotor matched #1 tower before I put it on the tractor. I was determined this time to have everything right and by the book.

I've had the mag off 2x now trying to get this right. The first time, I turned the mag CCW trying to get the rotor to line up. The 2nd time I turned it CW so that the impulse coupling would click, but it doesn't seem to make any difference in where the rotor winds up when I mate the bar on the mag to the notch in the timing gear. BTW, than notch appears to be exactly where it is supposed to be with the marks on the housing: 02:00-08:00. Just for grins, thinking it could be 180 off, I swapped the plug wires around and got a backfire thru the carb, so put the wires back as they should be.

Any ideas? Ripping my hair out here?

Here is a photo of the rotor and the bright mark on the case is #1 tower:

Good answers have been posted to your question. They were broken off to a new thread.