[AT] Points

[Ron Cook]

The old points and aircraft magneto points are platinum.  If not burnt 
and thereby pitted, will give no problems.  My opinion, of course.  They 
are very hard and require the points(used to be called platinum)file to 
resurface.  My aircraft stored in the exact same place as the tractors 
and some old engines that never have a problem is my experience.  I also 
have never heard of Ivan's very interesting emergency system.  I will 
also state that I have the points corrosion problem regardless of 6 or 
12 volt.

Ron Cook,

Salix, IA


On 3/9/2017 6:34 AM, Stephen Offiler wrote:
> Ivan's "emergency" ignition system is pretty interesting; never heard of
> that before.
>
> John, I do own a points file but I'd have to go digging to find it.  I use
> a piece of "wet-or-dry" sandpaper (dry of course) with a grit somewhere
> either 400 or 600.  I'm reluctant to take off too much material.  Points
> contacts used to be made of a multi-layer material with copper core (heat
> transfer) then some silver-cadmium alloy in a measureable thickness, not
> just a plating.  That stuff has some magic metallurgical property that
> resists corrosion, resists micro-welding if there's any arcing, and resists
> or prolongs that inevitable material transfer (those hills and valleys, the
> reason you eventually need to file them)
>
> Now I just said "used to be made of" because I strongly suspect the cadmium
> has been removed and along with it goes some or all of the magical
> properties.  So they're more prone to all the bad stuff mentioned above.  I
> think my points must be new enough to be made of the inferior materials.
> But they have very low hours and show no signs of wear and pitting.
>
> I was curious to see if others have similar trouble, and if there are
> clever solutions.  I realize I really should lean towards that Pertronix
> electronic ignition retrofit.
>
> SO
>
>
>