Spark, only on 1 side

[bbap]

79 Drifter 340 that ran fine last year.  This year, I went out and it was difficult to start and when it did, it only ran on one side.  Getting spark on the Mag side but not on the PTO.  I switched the white wire with red and now getting spark on the PTO and not the mag so I ruled the coils out.  I pulled the engine and removed the flywheel.  Cleaned the points well and inspected everything.  Nothing that I can see yet.  Any suggestions before I button it back up to see if I'm getting two clean sparks?  About 2 years ago I changed out the white side condenser but for the life of me I cannot remember why.....The white side appears to be the current problem.

Steve

[bbap]

Well, I cleaned up the contacts, checked out for any obvious wiring issues.  I put her back together and still no spark on one side.  I replaced the condenser last time a couple of years ago....thoughts on this being the same problem or any other ideas?  Steve

[Lloyd (ljm)]

  Might it be the sparkplug boot?

 Just a thought.

 Lloyd

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It would be nice, but I swapped out the Red and White wire and can get both coils/plugs to fire nice using the White Wire.   I just can't get the Red side to fire either side.

[Checkmarks]

Sometimes on other sleds of mine something similar would happen.  Run fine the previous year then the following year, no spark.  When I pulled about the 20th or 30th (aggressive going to give up the next pull full force effort pulls) like magic it starts sparking.

Can you split the white wire and run to both coils?  Run the motor for a bit and then check if the red is putting the juice out.

The red and white wire get their "juice" (magneto) from the same coil of windings under the flywheel right?  I would look at the schematics.

[bbap]

Thanks, but splitting the white would only dilute the spark to both sides in which the spark would occur at the same time.  It's possible it would have run but poorly.

I re-opened it up and put in a new condenser and she fired both sides as it should and started first pull.  All back together and ready for snow which disappeared over the last 10 days.  Thanks for suggestions!  Second opinions puts the thinking back in play.   Steve