Some of you might be interested in the detailed description of the restoration of a magneto I posted to BritBike Forum. It is the most extensive such description I am aware of on the web or in print, requiring 20 posts over four months to complete. Although it is about a Bosch ZEV for a 1923 Harley-Davidson, essentially everything in it is directly applicable to a Lucas KVF. You can find the thread at:
http://www.britbike.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=446733#Post446733
My obsession with magnetos was, ahem, sparked in the mid-1990s when I restored a BSA Gold Star that came with a nonfunctioning magneto. Rather than taking the time to figure out how to fix the magneto myself, I decided to send it to a specialist. That was a mistake. Although the specialist came highly recommended, had a very well equipped shop (where he also specialized in Vincents), and seemed quite sure of his abilities when I spoke with him, the magneto failed after 90 miles with what I recognized as a bad replacement condenser.
Unfortunately, before I had run the Gold Star I already had sent him my Vincent's KVF to restore, and it has been sitting on the shelf ever since. However, as I posted here at the end of October, I am now (re)embarking on the restoration of my own Black Shadow, so one of the components I will be restoring using the instruments described in that thread is the KVF. If only I knew then about magnetos what I know now… Anyway, as a result of that unfortunate experience with a highly recommended magneto rebuilder, as I wrote in the Epilog to that thread, "Although I have no way of knowing for sure, I seriously doubt even the most heavily-equipped professional magneto rebuilder has the range of equipment and facilities I do for diagnosing and restoring magnetos."
http://www.britbike.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=446733#Post446733
My obsession with magnetos was, ahem, sparked in the mid-1990s when I restored a BSA Gold Star that came with a nonfunctioning magneto. Rather than taking the time to figure out how to fix the magneto myself, I decided to send it to a specialist. That was a mistake. Although the specialist came highly recommended, had a very well equipped shop (where he also specialized in Vincents), and seemed quite sure of his abilities when I spoke with him, the magneto failed after 90 miles with what I recognized as a bad replacement condenser.
Unfortunately, before I had run the Gold Star I already had sent him my Vincent's KVF to restore, and it has been sitting on the shelf ever since. However, as I posted here at the end of October, I am now (re)embarking on the restoration of my own Black Shadow, so one of the components I will be restoring using the instruments described in that thread is the KVF. If only I knew then about magnetos what I know now… Anyway, as a result of that unfortunate experience with a highly recommended magneto rebuilder, as I wrote in the Epilog to that thread, "Although I have no way of knowing for sure, I seriously doubt even the most heavily-equipped professional magneto rebuilder has the range of equipment and facilities I do for diagnosing and restoring magnetos."