Sumter No 30

[sparkplug]

Hello all I have a gear driven mag here that i would like to know what engines it fits. The brass tag has on it, Smiter 3M, No 30, Pat 1912 - 1915. The end plates is all brass but has been painted black. Their is a home made mounting bracket that is bolted to the bottom of the mag. This unit has a good magnet force when rotating it.

[Jim Sherman]

I am pretty sure the Sumter 30 and the Sumter JR are basically the same magneto. The JR's were used on Fairbanks Morse H engines and some early Fairbanks Z's. There are certainly other engines that used the mag, I am just going off two that I own which use it.

[Lcjudge]

That bracket set up looks like it might have been on a 1 1/2 Lauson Frost King engine. They had the mag bracket mounted on the hopper.

[Jason Dahm]

That is almost undoubtedly for a Lauson Frost King Jr. or an Alpha Jr. Jason

[KidDynamo]

I have one just like it only the bracket is original with the big round head slotted machine screws holding the mag on. My bracket incorporates sort of a curved oil shield as part of the same casting on the off-gear side of the mag.

Mine has what looks to maybe be the same gear, only I can't get a full count on your's. Mine has 22 teeth.

When I first obtained mine some years ago, there happened to be a fair amount of traffic about similar Lauson/Alpha engines and I was able to see numerous engines that either had this bracket and magneto combo, or were missing it but had the footprint and tapped holes in the side of the water hopper where the missing bracket would have mounted.

I'll have to take other's word for the exact engine models but i call it my project Lauson that is missing lots of parts!

Other Lauson/Alpha engines had rotary mag's that mounted completely differently and used a different gear (I think). Darned if I can figure out why they went with such a robust magneto (and costly, comparatively) when other similar smallish engines used a much more modest magneto.

That magneto of your's is worth a pretty penny, too.

[sparkplug]

Thanks guys you have been very helpfull, The gear on the one i have here also has 22 teeth.