Slick Ignition Kits
Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 4:46 am
My Slick mags had about 830 hours on them and were starting to show their age in a more pronounced manner. I had an occasional rough right mag during run-up but the plugs would be clean, not fouled. I would do a check at about 2000 rpm in flight and the right one would begin to miss excessively after 10-15 seconds. Inspection showed excessive wear on the finger inside the large gear and the pins inside the cap. Replacement parts (block kit, points, capacitor) would run about $350 per side and I still would not have an overhauled mag and still had 830 hour coils and bearings . The harness was showing signs of age, especially fraying of the shielding at the plug end. I also did not want to endure a long down time shipping them off for a true overhaul.
Initial prices showed Spruce with the best deal of $577 a mag. Twice what the replacement parts would have been but probably not much more than what an overhaul would have cost. The "kit" - mags, harness and plugs - with massive electrode plugs was $1475 - ouch!
Then I got to looking at the slick kit with fine wire plugs. Two mags, new harness and 12 fine wire plugs for $1268. All bought separately would be $1847. I had not used the fine wire plugs before, but the only objection I found on this forum was the price. I'm not sure why the fine wire kit was over $200 less than the massive kit when the plugs themselves cost three times as much, but I figured with the difference I could buy and entire set of massive plugs if I didn't like the fine wires. If they last like I've read they do, I should be ahead in the end.
Got everything put on this weekend. It sure looks pretty with shiny new plug wires and shiny black plugs. She fired right up and had a noticeably smoother idle when cold. Everything ran great and although it cost more than I had planned on spending this month, it is nice to know I should not have any an ignition issues for quite some time.
Initial prices showed Spruce with the best deal of $577 a mag. Twice what the replacement parts would have been but probably not much more than what an overhaul would have cost. The "kit" - mags, harness and plugs - with massive electrode plugs was $1475 - ouch!
Then I got to looking at the slick kit with fine wire plugs. Two mags, new harness and 12 fine wire plugs for $1268. All bought separately would be $1847. I had not used the fine wire plugs before, but the only objection I found on this forum was the price. I'm not sure why the fine wire kit was over $200 less than the massive kit when the plugs themselves cost three times as much, but I figured with the difference I could buy and entire set of massive plugs if I didn't like the fine wires. If they last like I've read they do, I should be ahead in the end.
Got everything put on this weekend. It sure looks pretty with shiny new plug wires and shiny black plugs. She fired right up and had a noticeably smoother idle when cold. Everything ran great and although it cost more than I had planned on spending this month, it is nice to know I should not have any an ignition issues for quite some time.