A Sparker For Your Engine

If you are too much of a 'Boob' to make this test yourself, you might get your wife to hold the high tension lead and the ground wire while you manipulate the primary leads to touch the battery, explaining to her that you cannot hold all those wires at the same time. I can assure you that this method will verify whether the coil is good, however I need to caution you that your bodily injuries might be far less if you just perform the test by yourself.

With just a flashlight battery for power, the shock that you get is more of a 'startle' than a 'zap your finger off' jolt that you get when you touch the spark plug wire of a running engine

Once the coil is proven good we can proceed to make the sparker as follows: (See Fig. #6)

The simplest High Tension ignition system is the single spark ignition system as shown in the diagram above. (Fig. #7)

You can build a small hardwood box of your own design to house the coil, condenser, and battery.

If all you desire is a single flash spark ignition then you can stop here. If you desire to build a Buzz coil spark ignition system, then continue on to the next page.

Note: A condenser from any automotive or small gas engine ignition system will work in the systems shown on these pages. Direction of hookup is not critical.

For a buzz coil ignition system start with a mounting board about 2¹/₂'x3¹/₂'x ¹/₈' to ¹/₄' thick. The board can be any non conductive material such as plastic, masonite, plywood, or hardwood. Hardwood being the classic material.

Here is an alternate plan if you would like to make your own Buzz coil points:

This is not a good picture-B & S coils on later models are much smaller and a more compact unit can be built.