OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Engines Questions On Tecumseh / Kirby Engines Old Kirby Horizontal Shaft - How To Set Coil Gap

This Villiers cylinder mower has an old Kirby 4 stroke engine with a Bing carburetor attached. Apart from the main label/decal, there are no other identifying marks on the engine. A previous owner has roughly painted the engine in black enamel. There does not seem to be any marks stamped into the cowling or trim or decals that were painted over. I'll assume it's either a Kirby/Tecumseh or a Kirby/Lauson until better info comes to hand.



Sorry about my foot there!








I tried starting this old girl about a year ago but there was no spark. Removal of the points and coil showed that the points were ok, but the coil was open circuited (measured between HT lead & Earth) which means "das ist kaput"! No problem - I've got a replacement on the way. In the meantime, my patchy research has lead me to use/assume the following specs:

Coil air gap: .0010"
Points gap: 0.0020"
Spark plug gap: 0.0030"



Probably difficult to see, but the point on the right is hollow.

As you can see from the pics, the coil is mounted inside of the flywheel. The coil/points were not attached to a stator/base plate when removed. The coil and points are attached to the crankcase separately. I can set the point gap ok, but how can I set the coil/flywheel gap? When I Install the flywheel over the crankshaft, I am able to use a professional 0.0010" gap tool (i.e a business card) to get the gap, but then when I remove the flywheel, the coil moves and the correct gap is lost. Any thoughts/tricks on how to do this please? Thanks very much.

Kind regards - Peter.

Sorry. Corrections as follows:

Coil air gap: .010"
Points gap: 0.020"
Spark plug gap: 0.030"

Professional 0.010" gap tool (i.e a business card)