Fraser, Did you check the mags internally for point gap and cam follower wear?? Here is a recommendation from the Lycominglist. They are talking about checking a dual mag, but refers to a single. Mahlon knows his Lycomings.
These mags are a bit finicky and I would take them off every 3-400 hours for complete teardown and inspect and repair. Regardless of symptoms, I would never run more than 500 hours without removing them from the engine and taking them totally apart. Always replace the condensers at this time and always make sure you have a good ground between the points and the mag and the harness cap and the mag and the condenser and the harness cap. If you see big changes in mag to engine timing while doing a 100 hour or annual (say more than a couple of degrees) don't just reset the mag to engine timing..my bet is you will find the point gap has closed up. If that is the case, replace the condenser and points and check all the grounds as listed above. If I were flying behind one of these mags I would check the timing at every oil change to see if the mag to engine timing has shifted and if it has shifted more than I would expect, I would do the point, condenser, ground thing. As you have probably guessed, they have a problem with point gap closing from melted cam followers on the points. They say this is from the points overheating due to bad condenser or bad grounds. If the mag is set up correctly on the bench then the two of them will be within a degree of each other when timing to the engine. If you can do single mag inspection and repair you can do dual mag inspection and repair, they aren't that much different mechanically. Good luck, Mahlon
Bob MO
Last edited by admin on Fri Nov 04, 2011 11:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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