Brodhead Pietenpol Association

Original Posted By: "cgalley"
Subject: Pietenpol-List: Re: magneto plug wiresPieters, I am having a hard time figuring out how to run the wires from my mags on a cont A65. The firing order is 1324 and looking from the pilots seat the rotation to the terminals should be clockwise as they drive off thecrankshaft gear not the camshaft. I have about 4 cont engine overhaul manuals and when I look at the wiring diagrams and follow the wires to the cylinders it seems to be 1243. Anybody know what I am doing wrong? Ken Conrad in warm December ,no snow, Iowa________________________________________________________________________________

Original Posted By:
You are right that the firing order is 1,3,2,4 for ALL small 4 cylinderContinentalsForget the pictures which may or may not be right. The last AD for myBellanca was for a picture in the owners manual that showed the aileroncables wrong. This was over 50 years after it was first published.Evidently someone used it to rig and crashed.Remember that right mag does the top plugs and the other the bottom plugs.They are not split like Lycomings.If you run your engine as an A-75 at a faster speed of 2600 instead of 2300,the book recommends a small timing change. Hope that you have the big rodends drilled for squirt oil. Makes a big difference in longevity plus youcan run it faster for the additional 10 HP. Have to use a flatter pitchedprop is the ONLY change necessary.Remember that if you run the plug wires in the wrong order. If it runs, itwill miss like crazy. Been there, done that..Cy Galley - Chair,AirVenture Emergency Aircraft RepairA Service Project of Chapter 75EAA Safety Programs Editor - TCEAA Sport Pilot----- Original Message -----

Original Posted By:
Ken,Once you have determined the direction of rotation of the magneto distributor rotor and identified the #1 lead outlet, the magneto sparking sequence will be 1-2-3-4 in the direction of rotation, starting from #1 outlet. On your A-65, the rotor will turn to the right (as viewed from the rear of the engine).The firing order of your Continental A-65 is, as you have noted, 1-3-2-4. Run the ignition leads from #1 distributor outlet to #1 cylinder, #2 distributor outlet to #3 cylinder, #3 distributor outlet to #2 cylinder and #4 distributor outlet to #4 cylinder.As Cy says, the left magneto (as viewed from the rear of the engine) fires the lower plugs and the right magneto fires the upper plugs.Hope this helps.Graham Hansen (In Alberta, Canada where it is snowing and too cold to be fooling around with Pietenpols.) ________________________________________________________________________________