MTFCA Forum

I am convinced that the points are not 'hard' throughout their thickness. When they are less than about half their original thickness, they burn out very quickly.
Can anyone confirm this? How thick is the 'hard' part?

The points have a "cap" of tungsten over a steel base, I believe. The cap is about 1/16" thick. Once the tungsten is burned or filed away, the points will burn very rapidly, and probably tend to stick.
If the rest of the system is in good order, the points can last a very long time.
If you have chronic point problems and the coil current draw is not excessive or the condenser bad, the points may need to be replaced. Poor coil adjustment or a bad condenser will eat up points and timers.

Like anything else, tungsten points will wear out overtime.... None of the manufacturers of ignition points give a warranty time-wise or mileage-wise.

Continuously running the coils on 12 volts will cause premature point failure. So will weak capacitors, which is why I have often recommended to get a capacitor meter. They are priced at 20 bucks or so and they are relatively easy to use.

Art Mirtes

Art M wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 03, 2023 8:40 pm

Continuously running the coils on 12 volts will cause premature point failure.

Even worse is when 12V users have set their coils for 1.3A at 12V instead of 6V.

Would 1.3 amps at 30 volts from the magneto be any worse?

Would you see 1.3 A at 30 volts?