Maytag troubles HELP!!!

[David OBrien]

Ok, newbie here got a question concerning starting troubles with my Maytag twin. I am new to the hobby of engine perserving and even newer to the world of Maytags. This modle 72 is a real pain to start unless you ground out the front plug wire, I was given this tidbit of info from a long time older aquaintance who use to use one of the engines to run a pumpjack. when the plug wire is reconnected the front plug doesn't always fire. I am sure this isnt the nature of the beast so something is out of wack, can anyone give me some idea of where to look to find my starting/running gremlin. I have now rescued five small aircooled engines and three hopper cooled hit n miss and throttle governed engines and am now on the hunt for a 5hp or larger hit n miss to make my own, just missed a 7hp Economy at a local auction due to not enough depth to my pockets. Thanks in advance to all who can offer their wisdom. Thanks also to Harry for keeping this site up and running good.

[Andrew Mackey]

Is your mag a 72-D or DA? Or is it a WICO? You probably have a bad mag coil. There is an outside chance the plugs are bad, but probably not. What plugs are you using? They should be Champion H-10 or equivalent. In a pinch, you can use the J 17-LM Champions. The maytag uses a pass thru coil. Spark begins in the coil. It passes thru the Hi tension lead - thru 1 plug - across the gap - thru the block across the second gap - thru the seciond plug - thru the 2nd Hi tension lead - and back thru the coil. If you pull off a high tension lead, and the engine keeps running, the coil is shorting internally to ground and is bad. The ignition coil on the twin operates completely independant of the engine ground. When you pull off 1 high tension lead, you are forcing the coil to build up too much voltage, and it will quickly burn a path to ground internally, ruining it. As a last resort, you can try closing the plug gaps down to .020 each. It may start and run with the gaps closed down. If it still doesn't start, then the only solution is to replase the coil. NOTE - the 72-D and the 72-DA mags are NOT interchangeable. Neither are the flywheels between types. The coil armatures are different. and the 72 - D flywheel will hit the DA's core The DA flywheel will have too much clearance to the D core for oroper operation. The WICO mag, which was an option on the twins, also is a pass thru mag, but was much more reliable and gave a hotter spark than the Eismann mags.
Andrew

[David OBrien]

Thanks for the info, I looked today and I have the wico mag. Could the problem have anything to do with the condenser? I have looked everythign over and it all looks good, actually it looks near new inside, I dont thing this engine has much time on it at all. It is definitely an ignition problem though as I did try another set of plugs and the problem still excists. Thanks

[Andrew Mackey]

If the condenser was bad, then both plugs wouldn't fire. Unfortunately, it sounds like a bad coil . There are several people who make replacements . Check here on Harry's advertisers, or in the Gas Engine Magazine.
Andrew