Hi Larry, to respond to your question can you attach the HT leads of two
separate mags to one spark plug, using Fairbanks Morse four-cylinder
magnetos with (I imagine) mechanical breaker points.
After fooling with motorcycle magnetos for 40+ years, and now the
Vertex, my guess would be that since the spark voltage you produce in
the HT leads wants to take the path of least resistance to ground, it
will be more likely to run from one mag back into the other's coil than
it will be to jump the spark plug gap. Or even if it seems to work, it
may as you suggest produce some kind of electrical distress in the coils
and/or magnets that results in failure sooner or later.
So instead of producing twice the spark power at the plug, more likely
this would just misfire or not fire at all, and maybe mess up the mag
coils. Another consideration is it would be virtually impossible to get
both mags timed to fire at the exact same instant, and if you did
achieve this on one cylinder, it would still be off on some or all the
others, due to small variations in the breaker cam for each cylinder in
the mags (assuming you have mags with the traditional mechanical contact
breakers and a four-lobe cam). Plus your Gilmer belt drive will
probably have some slight errors built into it, from slight differences
in the pulley teeth and maybe even the teeth on the belt. But I see
nothing wrong with the Gilmer belt drive concept as a practical mag
drive.
In the end I imagine your best bet, if you want to keep the mag, is just
to use one, but be sure it's in top shape. A good Fairbanks-Morse must
be a decent racing ignition, you know Harley-Davidson used nothing else
for many many years on their racing models and won many important races
with them. Cheers Bill
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