Killing a Magneto

Somehow, we managed to take a working magneto and destroy it in our attempt to overhaul it. I offer a lot of the credit to Steve, as he is bound and determined to both go by the book and do it his way. Which usually consists of some form of brute force, using tools. This Slick magneto ran beautifully on the test rack, but then the problems began. First off, the Slick Service Manual leaves a LOT to be desired. Slick has a kit with items to aid with disassembly of the mag, but this particular kit had a few pieces missing. The manual neglected to itemize which tools to use for removing a part and during the forced removal, parts got bent. Plus, it seems that a prior student, when reassembling this mag, managed to force a wedge for the coil so far in that it is now totally impossible to remove it. Someone had broken off the top where you pry it up, likely due to the wedge having been forced in earlier. Steve had lots of messy ways to try to remove the wedge, probably damaging the housing in the process. It never came out and there is an jagged aluminum blob holding the coil in. At some point later during another fruitless attempt with another part, the connector for the lead got broken off, and the tab for the distributor got bent the wrong way. We finally located the missing kit parts and were able to reduce damage, at least for a while. At last he tried to hold the shaft part that holds the cam in order to remove something or other and managed to break a piece off completely. We searched for a replacement, but all we have now are a lot of other spare parts. Next week we start in on a Bendix mag. Cheers!