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When the magneto on my
Seven gave up the ghost a few months ago and I learnt of the
cost to rewind it I decided it may make more sense to for-go
some originality and convert the old B.T.H. to coil spark. I
have managed to do this in a way that is not obvious and
needs a good hard look to notice any difference.
Starting at the
battery, I ran a wire through a toggle switch to the
positive side of a 6V coil concealed under the dash. From
the negative side of the coil I ran a wire to a condenser
concealed behind the magneto and to the wire from the points
cover (normally used for shorting out the maggie). The
pick-up cover was removed and a short length of H.T. wire
soldered into the pickup carrier To do this you need to
remove the carrier and grind away the bakelite coating on
the carrier to expose the brass and then solder the H.T.
lead to it. Then I insulated around this with araldite and
replaced the pickup minus the spring and carbon brush
between pick-up and slip ring. Next I drilled a hole for the
H.T. lead though the side of the pickup cover nearest the
engine so that the H.T. lead can be hidden along behind the
magneto and connected to the coil.
An alternative to
bringing the H.T. lead from the pick-up is to drill the end
of the distributor cap but this is more obvious. To do this
you need to drill away the bakelite in the end of the rotor
and use a spring loaded carbon button between it and the
H.T. lead. Either way you need to remove the carbon brush
and spring between pickup and slip ring.
I first saw this
modification rather crudely done on a veteran Austin about
20 years ago At the time I thought what a terrible thing to
do because of the originality thing, but I guess as I get
older and poorer, my priorities have changed some
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