KA-39 Road Construction Johnson revisited

[bullie]

I hope to get back to my KA-39 soon. I received a set of condensers from a fellow AOMCI member and want to try them out but I have a question first. The condensers on my motor are soldered to the points and the new set attaches with a nut. Should I snip my old condensers off or try to melt the solder?

[Mumbles]

I’d unsolder the old cap and use the ring terminal on the new ones if there’s room and the wire is long enough. They might have come new with ring terminals which were cut off to make servicing quicker and easier. Not sure.

On this KA mag, the coils primary wire and condenser are both soldered to the tab on the points while the wire to the kill switch has a nut holding it on.

---

Attachments:

[bullie]

I think that one is like mine Mumbles.

[squierka39]

I don’t think the terminal ring will for thru the hole in mag plate. It’s been a few years since I did mine so it might. Let’s see some before and after pics Bullie.

[bullie]

quote SquierKA39:

I don’t think the terminal ring will for thru the hole in mag plate. It’s been a few years since I did mine so it might. Let’s see some before and after pics Bullie.

I made the holes a little bigger for the terminal rings and I am right back where I was before. I have spark on the lower but not the upper wire. I checked the coils and they both meter out the same. I donno.

[bullie]

Does this bring me back to the points? Can they get out of adjustment? Maybe I should disconnect the kill wires…

[Mumbles]

Good idea. The insulation on the original wires can wear thru at several places, causing a short.

---

Attachments:

[squierka39]

On one of mine with a dropped cylinder spark I found the solid ground wire had broken off flush at the coil body. Didn’t notice it at first. Took me a while to find it. Check every wire and connection carefully for a short or break.

[bullie]

Well, wasn’t the kill wires.

SquierKA39, I will check that next.

[Author]

Posts