Magnetron Ignition Modules

[Bryan Cotton]

Thanks Graeme! I've ordered one of the magnetrons that you linked. I also harvested a wire from my bad magnetron and it is gluing in the replacement right now.

[bvolcko38]

I reused the old terminals. Thrifty. I made the spark plug wires slightly longer so I could rout them to avoid the melting issue.

[GraemeSmith]

Just finished my second test flight yesterday and while my turbo engine seems to be running fine when I tested the mags at idle (turned off the 12V ignition) taxiing back to hangar, the engine died. Restarted immediately on 12V ignition. Tried another time with same result. Seems odd that both mags would apparently fail simultaneously but that appears to be the case or am I missing something. Anyone have any thoughts. I'll email Kerry on Monday.

Tom Jones
Onex 0133
Aerovee Turbo

Test for sparks - are they even working at all? Or did the engine just serendipitously start on the electric mags anyway?
What happened with the mag check on the ground before flight?

[GraemeSmith]

Today Amazon tried to sell me even cheaper Mags - some as cheap as $17. For your delectation and choice:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0951Y6T67
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BFPPZH6
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015MLUFG

[Bryan Cotton]

Today Amazon tried to sell me even cheaper Mags - some as cheap as $17. For your delectation and choice:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0951Y6T67
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BFPPZH6
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015MLUFG

I bought one of the ones from your first Amazon link - the Oregon 33-345. I thought the quality looked good compared to my other replacement mag.

[thomasjones42]

Gramme,

This was a post from last summer. Magnetron problem was not consistent. At times seemed to be functioning fine. Sold the plane this spring. New buyer found the bottom mag had failed.

Tom Jones

[Bryan Cotton]

Here is my solution to the melted magnetron wire - a double adel clamp on the Y pipe. I had actually done this a couple years ago on the other side but for some reason I thought this side was good.

This is the old magnetron, and a wire from the bad magnetron. I made it about an inch longer.

[tps8903]

I bought one of the ones from your first Amazon link - the Oregon 33-345. I thought the quality looked good compared to my other replacement mag.

I was having an intermittent magnetron problem on e the engine got hot. By switching off the electric ignition I lost EGT on Cyl 2/4. I bought the Oregon 33-345 moduals off of Amazon. They were good quality. I bought two, but only replaced my top magnetron so far.

Took a test flight yesterday and ran flawlessly.

[tps8903]

Just finished my second test flight yesterday and while my turbo engine seems to be running fine when I tested the mags at idle (turned off the 12V ignition) taxiing back to hangar, the engine died. Restarted immediately on 12V ignition. Tried another time with same result. Seems odd that both mags would apparently fail simultaneously but that appears to be the case or am I missing something. Anyone have any thoughts. I'll email Kerry on Monday.

Tom Jones
Onex 0133
Aerovee Turbo

Both of mine failed within about 40 hours on my Turbo. Initially they would only fail intermittently when they got hot, then they stopped functioning during ground run up.

I just swapped them both out for the Oregon part number in this post. Both now running great.

The old top magnetron looked fine, the bottom one had cracked and bulging epoxy on the coil. The copper wires were exposed. I think heat from the break in fried them. The unseasonably hot 105 F summee I'm sure didn't help.

Now that my engine is running cooler due to break in completion, I hope the new ones last longer than 40 hours.

I make a habit to ground check the ignition during run up, I then check them in flight at top of climb and before descent. That's how I found out they were failing when hot.

They were surprisingly easy to change. I had to remove the intake elbows for access to the top magnetron. Bottom has enough room to work around. I used a brass shim for spacing. So I needed a second set of hands. A steel shim would stick nicely to the magnet.

[funflyingguy]

hi all,

new sonex owner here, with the aerovee normally aspirated engine. also have no firing of my top front brand new spark plugs as verified by quickly dropping EGT temps for #'s 2 and 4 when doing a mag only ignition check. i've searched quite a bit to get info about this. your posts have given me me hope that i have a magnetron replacement i can use and a way to install it without pulling the engine. the long, steel .010 feeler gauge suggestion is also excellent. any other helpful hints would be appreciated....

a bit about me: my name is jim. i bought this sonex, #1010, as the 3rd owner back in may of this year. i have had a steady stream of mostly minor issues with it since. this ignition issue just started a few days ago. i previously owned a CGS hawk ultralight for 11 years, then a piper cherokee for 25 years before selling it a few months ago, thinking a was done flying. i wasnt!. i bought this sonex as a new challenge, without the complexity and the regs.

thanks for being here with your detailed posts. they have been helping me along....... jim / 'funflyingguy'