OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums General Discussion Forum Off Topics Timing light

My timing light that I bought when I was 17 has stopped working. It doesn't look like I can pull it apart so does anybody know of a timing light I can use to check for spark. All the ones I can find all need to be hooked up to a battery and that makes them just a pain in the butt. The light I have just connects to the plug lead and other end to motor body and that is so simple and 100% accurate.
Just another thought, has anybody tried an LED to see if that would work?

I have my father's timing light, would be at least 60 years old. It has a little squiggly fluoro tube which gives off a dim orange light, needs a dark room to be seen, one end connects to the plug, the other end to the HT lead.

Will get a more modern one if it ever stops working - and they all seem to need a 12 V battery, presumably to power the brighter lights they have.

Hi MM,
mine is 60 years old and it had the squigly tube but somehow that has been broken. I will try an LED in it tomorrow, nothing to loose

I will get one of these
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/125744892226?

Hi Norm and MM,

I have a few cheap spark testers and they are pretty much useless outside in the light ,they are only good in shade.

Also have a few timing lights powered and non powered ,old and new.

You can buy a battery powered timing light these days ,I'd have to look who sells the non powered T light these days,
they look hard to find.

I would have thought an LED would burn out.

Cheers
Max.

Hi Max,
LED works fine, I guess time will tell if it lasts

Hi Norm,

I guess they don't make the cheap non powered timing lights with the reddish neon light anymore as all I see for sale are vintage second
hand timing lights.

I'm surprised the LED works as normally the LED is between 1.8 and 3.3 volts and spark is around 15,000 volts on a mower.

The battery powered timing lights would be handy for a mower but worth more than a cheap mower.

I do like the old Vintage timing lights ,just not as bright as powered lights.A few below ,I'm sure I have some more somewhere.

The next cheap best thing would be the cheap spark tester but is hard to see outside.

I guess you could buy a Vintage timing light at a market cheap and test it with a spark igniter.

Cheers
Max.

I used the light a couple of time today Max and it seems to be working fine. I have plenty of LED's here so I am not concerned if it fails. What does concern me is me thinking the coil has failed and changing the coil only to find it was the light had failed. Happened to me yesterday on a big trailer mounted log splitter I had to work on out in the street, walking in and out so many times. I might fit half a dozen LEDs in the light so if one fails I will get warning, and it would look cool if I used different coloured LEDs