Bright Spark Magnetos in Sydney, Australia | Cars

Bright Spark Magnetos

Locality: Sydney, Australia

Phone: +61 412 963 758

Address: PO Box 18 Berowra Heights 2082 Sydney, NSW, Australia

Website: http://www.brightsparkmagnetos.com.au

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• Automotive, aircraft & boat
• Automotive repair centre
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24.01.2022 A while ago Danny sent me up the ignition system out of his boat. He had been having troubles at the last race he was at and ended up not finishing . When I unpacked everything I found a MSD 12 LT plus 2 MSD Points boxs, There was also a Mallory Supermag and 2 coils. Another thing I noticed was he had solid core leads on the MSD- This is a big NO NO. The solid cores act like antennas and the electrical noise generated by the magneto is bad enough but with these leads it was ...enough to fry the Electronics inside the points box's. Sure enough, both box's were dead. So I stripped them down and cleaned them out, one needed The output FET's replaced , the other needed the FET's and the Coil replaced. Once they were back together I put then on my Mag Test bench and ran them up for an hour each- I don't need a magneto to drive them as I have a custom simulator for them- otherwise the magneto would overheat and lock up at such a large period of running. While they were running I stripped the magneto down and cleaned it out, I then replaced the bearings in the generator and the lower drive. I then reset the clearances, fitted a new magnetic pickup, and then replaced the rotor and cap. Just like new. I then ran it on my spin fixture for 30 minutes at 9000 RPM. While that was buzzing away I made him 2 new sets of MSD Super conductor leads, along with new MSD Heat guard on them. Once they were all finished I checked out the Mallory and found the points were completely shut, So I polished them back pu and set the gap to 16 Thou, ran it up with each of its coils and now Danny is set to go racing again. See more

23.01.2022 Emilio is hoping to get his car out for some good testing this weekend. he went to fire it up on Monday and it was dead, after chasing around they worked out the points box had died. So They rushed it to me and I did an overnight on it and am giving it back to them today. at the same time they got me to extend the harness on their change over switch, this switch allows them to start on the magnetic pickup in the generator and then flick of a switch they are running on the crank trigger. Hopefully now the weather holds out...

19.01.2022 Carlo talks us through our Pro Mag building and testing process.

17.01.2022 SO a couple of weeks ago I was wandering around the pits at Western Sydney International Dragway and I was catching up with loads of people I have met over the years and also taking the opportunity to hand out some business cards, As I mentioned in my last post I have been servicing and testing magnetos for 12 years, but only recently have I started doing them under my own Banner. One of the first people I caught up with was Junior at Rapisarda - definitely one of the bigg...est and best equipped Top fuel Teams ever in Australia. The following week I had a bench load of 44 amp mags and ignition plates- each containing two points box's and two coils. If you look at the video I shared on this page you will see the massive spark these things generate- AND THEY RUN TWO OF THEM - totally insane . But when things go wrong they do so in an expensive way, if you look at the first two photos you will see a black magneto with a silver spray on it- this is actually melted Alloy- probably some of the block or something when they have lifted the heads - OUCH. But pretty common with anything that runs NITRO. See more

16.01.2022 Emilio sent me in a pair of MSD 44 Amp Magnetos to check out, he also wanted me to convert the red one to the large cap and to adjust the rotor phasing to suit. This I did , but I took the red cap base off the black mag and fitted it to the red magneto on top of the new Top section that I had fitted to the mag, and supplied a whole new black cap assy. This now gives them a complete Red mag and a complete Black mag, small details but it definitely makes for a tidier look

16.01.2022 Dennis from Always Pumping sent me the MSD 12LT magnetos up to give it the once over. It had been caught in a small fire and damaged all the external wiring. While I had it I stripped it right down and cleaned it right out, I knocked all of the bearings out and re-surfaced the generator and cleaned the rust of the magnet packs , I then gave them a paint to hold the rust at bay. Fitted some new bearings, re- shimmed the magnet packs to the correct tolerances, replaced all of the external wiring and heat shielding , plus fitted a new set of watertight plugs to it. The Magnetic pickup needed changing as its wiring was also burnt so I fitted one and put it all back together and ran it up on my test bench. Once I was satisfied with it I fitted a new cap and rotor and sent it back out to Dennis.

15.01.2022 Danny sent me The mag setup out of his boat. I have tested it and both of his points box's were dead, but here is his freshly overhauled MSD 12 Amp Mag and his repaired 8106 points box, Just a quick rev to 14000 RPM

10.01.2022 just finished overhauling two MSD 44 Amp magnetos for a top fuel car. It went bang at the last meeting- Nitro is really impressive, but it is no ones friend when it goes wrong. This is a quick buzz up to 10,000 RPM on my load bench with the spark jumping 40mm.

08.01.2022 Just as a comparison here is the old school MALLORY (Now Owned by MSD) Supermag, these run points in them so I didn't push it as hard as the MSD, But you can see and hear how much softer the spark is.

08.01.2022 John sent me up a few points box's that he was having trouble with. I stripped them down and tested the normal suspects and found some faults but when I put the first on the test bench it was erratic and failed again, So I stripped it down and dug deeper. It could be old age but I found some components that are normally bullet proof dead, I even had to replace a couple of IC's that I have never seen faulty, and it took me a couple of weeks to get replacements from the USA, but when I got the box's back together the output not only sounded crisper but was much cleaner on the Oscilloscope. I ran them for 20 minutes between 10 and 11000 RPM without a hiccup, so I cleaned the cases, reattached the backing plates, slipped on my stickers and they are good to go.

07.01.2022 it's not often I get time to post, just too busy all round. but here is a quick one. John was having trouble working out the rev limiter on his customers box, so he sent it up for me to check out. Quick strip and repair, all back together and ready to race again.

05.01.2022 Not for commercial use. If you don't view these fullscreen you're missing out!

04.01.2022 A while ago Rachelle sent me the Mags and points box's off her Fuel Car. They had some problems while running up at Willowbank and had been chasing a miss-fire the whole weekend. The first thing I noted was all of the points box's had the wiring hacked about. Another company in Sydney had just looked at the box's and replaced the Deutsch plugs on a couple of them but not bothered replacing the damaged wiring... Doesn't make sense. I ran each points box up with the 1st mag a...nd the 3rd one made it up to 9000 RPM and then the spark went silent and slowly died. It did not spark again- This is their problem in 12 years of repairing and testing mags this is the first time I have actually seen a points box slowly die in front of me. I ran the other points box's up and then swapped magnetos and ran the 4 remaining points box's back up. I then stripped the magnetos and cleaned them out, replaced the bearings, re-shimmed them , set up the rotor phasing and I then stripped each points box and replaced the wiring. I then ran them all back up. The last thing was to repair the dead points box, Once done I put it on my test drive and ran it for 1 hr at 9000 RPM. It can through with flying colours. See more

03.01.2022 Emilio sent me in the 44 Amp mag out of his Pontiac GTO Funny car, They were having ignition issues so needed it checked out. As I have mentioned previously I have been Servicing Magnetos for 12 years from my previous Employ out at Huntingwood, So I had seen this mag before and to keep up the same level of testing and workmanship Emilio sent it on to me. The first thing I noticed was the burnt track mark across the cap base. This was where the spark was finding it easier ...to burn through and find its way to Earth by jumping a 10mm Airgap to the Blower Belt Guard. I ran the mag up to 11000 RPM to check it's output and run it right to and past its RPM limit it would see on the car. I noted some bearing noises so I stripped it down and cleaned it out, I then replaced the bearings and re-shimmed it to give the correct AirGaps. While I was in there I replaced the Square bush, this is a "Wear point" it is designed to wear out, it also buffers the drive and magnetos, like a suspension bush, when it wears out you get slop between the drive and the rotor tip itself, also the rotor tip is a good thing to change regularly as the primary current these monsters put out burns them. Now there is a company in the USA that claim they "blue print & increase the magnetos output sometimes to 50 Amps" - Big Deal. From MSD I have seen them exceed 50 amps. BUT THE POINTS BOX ITSELF LIMITS THE OUTPUT TO 44 AMPS. they are spinning a B/S yarn and taking peoples money for it. This mag had 48 Amps and on the Oscilloscope there was only 44 at the spark plug!!. See more

01.01.2022 Just to introduce myself. My name is Geoff Stewart, if your race car or boat has a MSD magneto on it then there is a good chance I have seen it and overhauled it. I have been servicing and repairing MSD Magnetos and points box's for 12 years now, I have dome every Top Fuel car in Australia and New Zealand, as well as most alcohol cars, not to mention the Sprintcars 12 LTs that I have overhauled (and De-Mudded). I deal Directly with the good folk at MSD and even went to the factories for a full day tour and 13 years ago on my Honeymoon.... Awesome facilities and amazing people.