1/6 scale Galloway Ignitor

[rickhann]

I have just finished???? a 1/6 scale Galloway hit and miss. Am trying to get it to run, but no luck so far. I suspect the problem is with the ignitor. It is a bit small and fiddly. My question is: What should the gap be in the ignitor points. I am guessing .020", or .030", but am only guessing as the plans do not address that question. I am using a multimeter to set the timing and it seems to be correct, but not knowing what is going on with the ignitor is a problem. Any help and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Rick

 

[Ken K]

I made a 1/6, and in the long run, changed it over to spark plug.
The ignitor trip would wear out, in about 6 hours, of run time. Mine were brass, steel one ,may last longer.
The coil, needed to put out a hot spark. Tried three coils. Two would not run the engine. An old MjN coil, no longer in busness, worked.
KenK

 

[Jasonb]

On my 1/3rd and a couple of Root & Van Dervort engines I have about 0.025 gap, I use tungsten carbide cut from TIG electrode silver soldered onto the arms so it does not wear.

 

[gbritnell]

Rick,
I built all of the Galloways with igniters except the 1/8th engine. Actually I did build it but it was extremely fussy in that size. When I was building them I had no experience with building igniters so asked for help on here and go several helpful suggestions. One was to put a small boss onto the existing casting with an adjusting screw to limit the igniter arm travel.
This limits the return travel of the point arm so that it doesn't touch the igniter cavity in the engine base. I usually set the gap anywhere from .015 to .025. The gap is not critical like with traditional points because the spark is generated when the points open and an arc is created. With conventional points you don't want that arc, that's what the condenser is for.
With an igniter the points are normally open. When the pushrod with the trip mechanism moves forward it catches the point trip lever and closes the points. Now the current flows through the points and coil. When the trip lever travels far enough the point trip lever releases and pops open thus creating the spark.
If you have the latest drawings, the ones that I redid, you will notice the stop arm and adjusting screw on the drawing. I also redesigned the pushrod with a slot to allow the trip arm to be timed without having to hold it in place and try and drill the hole in the correct position.
gbritnell

 

[BobsModels]

Rick

I built the 1/8 scale in 2012 with the ignitor. You mention setting the timing with a multimeter, so you know that the points are making contact and then opening because you can see the meter reading short to open.
My little one runs about 80 hours a year at shows. It is still going strong but getting real wore out. One thing I found was matching a good coil. I tried a number of them. What I ended up with was a 12volt battery and a old fluorescent light ballast coil. It gave the best spark. I got them at home depot but I think they quit selling them. Here is link:

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_od...0.Xgem120ph120.TRS0&_nkw=gem120ph120&_sacat=0

Bob