• Welcome aboard HomebuiltAirplanes.com, your destination for connecting with a thriving community of more than 10,000 active members, all passionate about home-built aviation. Dive into our comprehensive repository of knowledge, exchange technical insights, arrange get-togethers, and trade aircrafts/parts with like-minded enthusiasts. Unearth a wide-ranging collection of general and kit plane aviation subjects, enriched with engaging imagery, in-depth technical manuals, and rare archives.

    For a nominal fee of $99.99/year or $12.99/month, you can immerse yourself in this dynamic community and unparalleled treasure-trove of aviation knowledge.

    Embark on your journey now!

    Click Here to Become a Premium Member and Experience Homebuilt Airplanes to the Fullest!

Wiring retard breaker ignition to allow starter to engage without sparking mag

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

mcurcio1989

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2013
Messages
178
Location
Toledo
Helping a friend out. I get a little confused looking at the wiring diagrams for retard breaker mags. It seems fairly straight forward to wire up if you use a L-R-BOTH-START key switch but we want to be able to crank the engine without starting it. I guess the question is really when the retard breaker mag is in the ground position should both the advanced and retard contacts be open circuit or is the normal, advanced contacts grounded until you switch back to both?

I think the ideal setup would be to add a toggle switch that allows the left mag (both p leads on it) to be grounded or open to kind of override the key switch. So you would have a start/run position on the toggle and a crank position.

An experience aviator told me do this when I wired my plane up and sort of jokingly said I can't tell you exactly why you'll want that option but time will tell. Fast forward a year and were out on the water with him giving me dual instruction and my starter wouldn't engage after we shut the engine off for a bit. It came in very handy in troubleshooting the problem and he of course very smugly said hey who told you to put this switch in here anyways!??
 
Back
Top