Rattle in hogshead

[Art Ebeling]

I just recently got my 11 started and and running great but on two starts I have heard a random rattle in the front of the hogshead. It went away after a few seconds and did not occur again. I wanted to tell myself it was nothing but knew better, Today I removed the hogshead and found a coiled up piece of wire clinging to a magnet. I really don't know how or when that could of happened but now I am really glad I took it apart, could have been a disaster. Art

[Norman Kling]

you are very fortunate it stuck on the back side of the magnet. Hopefully it did not damage the magneto coils. If it were my engine, I would drain the oil and do a very thorough search for anything else which might be in there. It is possible that wire was not what was actually causing the knock.
Norm

[Norman Kling]

I looked at the picture again and it looks as though there might be something caught on the magnets to each side of the one shown in the center of the picture. Rotate the flywheel slowly by rolling the car forward or backward in high gear and inspect all the magnets as well as checking the sump and around the gears.
Norm

[R.V.Anderson]

Take heart; this is a very common occurrence with first startups of newly rebuilt engines. Very frequently the bit of wire (which almost always comes from a bit of excess (!) safety wire or a broken cotter pin) ends up at the mag post, shorting it out. Less frequently, but more unluckily, it ends up inserted into one of the field coil windings and kills the mag. That happened to my '14 about 15 years ago. In my case the "wire" was a broken cotter pin from one of the clutch fingers. Look around at your safety wired assemblies or cotter pins, what you can see of them. If you can't rest easy after doing that, then pull the hogshead and have a more thorough look-see.