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[November 29, 2011]


I knew my timing of my mag was off when I analyzed why I got a kickback when I started the RV the other day. When I removed the mag, I must of installed and timed it incorrectly. I am just lucky I didn't do any damage to my flywheel or my starter. I removed the wiring harness from the mag, and then the mag from the engine to set its internal timing.


Slick magnetos come in two flavors - right and left rotation. This one is a left rotation, as indicated by the 'L' on the dataplate in the 'ROT' field.


The left rotation means the gear turns clockwise (as viewed from the rear, or the same direction as the prop). In order to set the internal timing of the mag, the 'L' hole is used with a timing pin.


Since this was a left rotating mag, I installed a pin in the 'L' hole. This is to set the timing of the #1 cylinder firing at TDC. With the crankshaft turned so that #1 was at TDC, I carefully reinstalled the mag. Once it was installed, I wired everything back up.

I wheeled the airplane out to the taxiway and started the engine on just the EMAG. I didn't want to start it on the EMAG and the MAG in case I still had Mag timing issues. I didn't want to suffer another kickback which could damage the starter or flywheel.

So the RV started flawnessly again, but when I switched to only run on the MAG, the engine died. I was frustrated so I left for the night.

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Last Modified: August 13, 2023