Where I am at. It seems that if the coil, condenser, points and magnets are all working the only thing left is the gap. I have continued to overlook this as there is no obvious way of adjusting it. I discovered that one side of the internal contents of the flywheel (I have called it shoe on the picture) was striking the ends of the coil. You can see in the photo where it had been rubbing, I had earlier discounted this as the occasional piece of grit getting in there. Either the flywheel is not actually round, or the hole in the centre is off centre or the shaft is not round, no idea how that could have happened.
As the shoe is coated with an insulation I am hypothesizing that it ran for a little while until it wore off the insulation and corrosion which was on it when I first started it. This is assuming that with the pieces touching I would get no or a weaker spark. I don't actually know.
I sanded the ends of the coil and also the piece in the flywheel that I have called shoe, (that was before I realised that the coating on it was insulated). Put a little grease on the ends of the coil reassembled and tested it. Disassembled cleaned it and tested it. No luck, so I started testing everything again and now the coil is not working, no resistance between the points lead and the earth. In hindsight I should have removed the ends of the coil before sanding them, as it may have been this that shorted out the coil or it could have been numerous attempts to test it with the flywheel hitting it.
Regardless I am going to think about this for awhile before handing out 87 pounds (probably plus freight, and maybe even GST) for a new coil. I would feel better about it if I knew I had solved the problem. A mate of mine has said he would like to have it as a veranda ornament, all I have to do is deliver it.
An interesting note, inside the flywheel there are two magnets with a spacer in-between them. Fortunately there is only 2 ways that the magnets can go back in as they have a different bevel on each end. You can only change the position of the magnets by turning them over and swapping their position. So you could only have North (N) South (S) and North South or SN/SN I was wondering if this would determine if a motor had a positive or negative earth, or if it would make any difference.
If I can get a large enough hammer it will run for awhile just trying to get away from me
