Technical Magneto problems

Yesterday, I took my vintage dirt car out of long term storage to take to the local car show (people really need more to look at than 12 '55 Chevys). This car has a full race '54 Chrysler with a Cirello "Frankenstein" magneto. Although I know zip about magnetos, I came across this unit when I was building the engine and decided to use it. This was about 20 years ago, and the unit has always performed flawlessly. The car hasn't been started in about 5 years, so I went over everything to make sure it was OK, and when I tried to start it, it didn't want to fire. I finally got it going, and it ran great, just like the old days. I shut it down and tried to restart it, and it wouldn't start again. After a bunch of checking wiring and fooling around, I pulled one of the plugs to check the spark. It was very weak. I can get the car started by jumping it from a running car, which I believe turns the engine over just enough faster to produce a decent spark.

As I understand it, the magnets in the magneto can deteriorate over time; is this correct? It looks like the magneto output is very low at cranking speeds, but once the engine starts, the revs come up enough to produce a good spark. It looks like I'll have to pull it and send it out to have the magnets re-energized. I have checked the internet, and all of the companies doing this seem to specialize in tractors or "hit 'n miss" engines. Anybody know of anyone specializing in racing magnetos in general, or Cirello's in particular?

Thanks.

 

Yep.
The shows I seem to find have 25 67-72 Big Block Chevelles that all sound the same and every air cleaner has 396-375 hp...go figure

 

Cirello magneto is still doing businesses. Give tom cirello a call, i'm sute he'll fix you up.

Sent from my 6045O using Tapatalk

 

Or Spud Miller. Have him give her a tuneup and rare earth magnets. Tell him Lippy sent you.

http://fuelinjectionent.com/

 

Thanks for the info guys; that'll teach me not to do generic Google searches.

 

Every auto electric shop used to have a "growler" for checking armatures. The growler can also be used for remagnetizing magneto magnets. I have had them done a couple of times by my local auto electric shop, they never even charged me. It only takes 10 seconds to do.