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Zero Motoplat


boghopper350
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Hi. I am having trouble getting a spark from our zero. I have sent the whole motoplat system, bar the flywheel off to Bradford ignitions. Steve checked it and repaired the stator and the coil. I reasembled everything... but no spark! I emailed Steve and he said that it could be the flywheel. He asked for some pics to visually check and said that it looked good. No more contact from Steve. So I purchased a zero motoplat ignition from ebay, the seller assured me that it worked fine. Still no spark. I have tried all possible combinations of original and ebay parts to try to eliminate any duff parts. I have removed the cut out switch. My question is, do you think that this could be a bad earth caused by corrosion at the engine mountings?

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at a guess the engine does need to be earthed to frame via the mounts and coil to frame you can check this with a voltage type car tester the type with the dial , turn to constant polarity ( buzzes when testing wires touched together ) and check for a buzz in between motor and frame and frame and coil body also earth the plug body

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Big hopper,

You need to diagnose your problem logically starting with where the electricity is generated.

Put your repaired gear back on the bike.

The first thing to check is the magneto and check the voltage coming from the magneto when you kick it over , obviously with the flywheel fitted. You should be getting a good reading way in excess of 12 volts. You can use a bulb lead for this or a digital volt meter , you know ...the sort that is £5 on ebay.

If your getting good volts then check your connections to the coil and frame .

Then check the reading coming from your ht lead.

This process should identify your problem component. Ive got to say im surprised both your coil and stator needed repairing. This is strange that both may be faulty. Also i see they are in Cornwall. Is this the original guy who has come back from Spain or someone who has bought the business. This guy may just not know his stuff like the original.

Good luck

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Thanks for your replies folks. All parts were cleaned carefully before assembly... several times! yes the ht coil mount is spotless, dito flywheel both around the magnets and where it sides onto the end of the crank. Thanks gas gas, that's just what I'm looking for, some voltage readings. I'm glad that you mentioned the fact that it's unusual for more that one ignition componant to be faulty... that's exactly what I was thinking... esp. when I bolted it all back on and it still didn't work. At least I now have quite a stock of motoplat parts. I believe that it was always Steve Hardacre(forgive me if this is spelt wrong), running B.I. If so then yes, same guy running it now. Oh I forgot to mention that I tried a ducati ignition off the synt and it worked fine... but the synt needed it back, prehaps if I get no joy I could get one of those to use. Thanks again everyone. I'll check those readings and let you know.

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Mmmh ... seems to me when I read your postings that there might be still an issue with the ignition parts or maybe even with the magnetic rotor which can have lost magnet which can occur when the rotor was in some kind heat treated, (milled for getting rid of weight, ...), or through age, ( should normally happen first after 30 + x years; so the rotor should under normal circumstances OK? That the other stator worked doesn't mean there is enough magetism left for running the Motoplat.

For more information you can look up this page, especially for the cast Motoplat ignitions.

http://www.motelek.net/zundanlagen/motoplat1.html

The guy running this site is living in Austria, he is an electric engineer and repairs and doing research to old electronic ignitions as a hobby!

He repaired the ignition of my Beta TR, also this incast type model, you can also call him up for discussing the issue. The contact info is given in the webpages. If it is the rotor and he lost magnetism you to give it to a company that can re magnetise the rotor.

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The magnets are fine, various tools were picked up during assembly and stripping down. I will do some checks when I get chance. Many thanks once again... That site that you linked pschrauber looks interesting I'll have a good look when I get a few mins.

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I'd put money on it the magnets are fine. Sure , they can fall off , but i've never heard of them losing so much juice that they wouldn't work.

Be logical . Check the power from the source and then follow it

Nope ... magnets inside don't fall off they are loosing their magnetism. By time which would be after just 20 years very uncommen or by heat. Heat means temperatures above normal engine temperatures, let's say 200 deg. Celsius or more.

You can check it out easily by yourself take a magnet and heat him up with a torch over 400 deg., let him cool down again and then check out how good he still will stick to metall compared to before.

Anyway what still makes me wonder is that the ignition was repaired by professionals (as I understood) and now still is not working, ...

Edited by pschrauber
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Hi, Im not sure this helps but........

I have a Campionato and recently had ( or so i thought) an issue with the ignition. I obtained another stator fitted it and kicked it over with the plug resting on the head to check the spark. There was no visible spark even though i was in the garage where the lighting is not brilliant. Felling rather fed up i checked the connections and wiring etc but found nothing. I eventually put the plug back in and tried it. It started and has continued to do so.

Maybe worth trying for what its worth.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have only just seen this topic, has the problem now been resolved?

There are two types of Motoplat that I have seen, one has a small flat sided probe protruding from the face of the stator which has to be a precise distance from the corresponding part on the flywheel, if this gap is too big then no spark.

From memory to reduce this gap the stator would need to be shimmed nearer to the flywheel inner side.

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  • 2 months later...

Hi. A quick update, today I had some free time for the first time in ages... and it's running. Turns out the ebay stator had some wires that had damage to the insulation that had been covered with black sheathing. I tried both of the flywheels and they are fine (one has been lightened so I now have a choice). I havn't tried the stator that was fixed by bradford ignitions because I was so pleased to get it going again that I spent the rest of the day riding it and tinkering with other stuff. Thanks everyone for your help, sorry it took so long to get round to having a look.

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