Solid state ignition for Cushman Truckster

Toolmiester

Hello everyone....I am new to this site as well as the Cushman Trucksters.

I recently purchased a 1983 Cushman Truckster its a slick little thing with a hydraulic dump bed and a PTO which all seem to work well. I drove the thing around the yard a few times and it doesn't seem to have alot of power, not sure if it needs a rebuild .....as soon as it warms up outside a bit I'll do a compression check.
While I was familiarizing myself with it I discovered it has points. I hate points! Does anyone know if someone such as pretronix makes aftermarket solid state ignition for this? I called Cushman today and they only had points and condensor. The model I have is an 898530 I think it is an OMC 218 motor if I am not mistaken. I would appreciate any help anyone can give me.

Pat

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CharleyL

Pat,

Welcome to BGW. It's good to see another Cushman Truckster owner on here. Please go to "User CP" in the top left second dark blue bar on your screen and fill out your profile. Be sure to tell us us a bit about yourself, especially the town you live in. You might be just around the corner from one of us.

I'm not aware of a truly electronic ignition system for 1980s trucksters, but we would be interested if you find anything, since I myself own a 1987 truckster.

A good condenser will keep the points in good condition for a long time. The 2 coils are wired in series from the one set of points so the current through the points and the coils is relatively low. The secondary of each coil feeds feeds only one spark plug, so a high voltage distributor like in a car isn't necessary. The distributor only has the points circuit and the centrifugal advance mechanism in it. Both plugs fire at the same time, but only one cylinder is on compression at a time. It's called a "lost spark ignition system" because the spark on one plug doesn't produce results because it's cylinder is on the exhaust stroke while the other fires it's cylinder on the compression stroke. These engines were designed and built by OMC, the owner of Cushman in the 1980's.

If your spark plugs are above center on your cylinders you have a 22 hp engine. If they are below center you have an 18 hp engine. Much of these engines are the same. I believe that the cylinders and pistons are the only significant difference between them.

The 80's vintage trucksters are grossly under powered and their engines over heat very easily if you don't keep the cooling air flow paths clear, the fins on the engine clean, and the engine rpm up when running under a load. The air flow past the engine must be kept moving well.

Cushman was bought out by EZGO in the early 2000s. Is EZGO who you called? They are still using the Cushman name on some of their products. Jacobsen, the previous owner of Cushman still has Adobe Acrobat pdf copies of many Cushman manuals on their website and I've been told that some parts are available from them too. Directparts.com also has some engine parts

Charley

Toolmiester

Thanks Charley, after reading your post I updated my profile. Yes the call I made was to Ezgo/cushman/something/something else, they spoke so fast I could not understand all of what they said when answering the phone.
The tech support guy said that at one time they did make solid state ignition systems for the old products, but no longer do. He also said that there were 2 aftermarket companies that did also, but had since closed their doors. The only thing left on the market were the points. When I bought my old Mustang I spent an afternoon fiddling around fine tuning those things. Someone told me about the Pertronix products which I promptly ordered....10 minutes to install....that was 16 years ago and I have not messed with it since. I contacted Pertronix and they asked me for a distributer number which I can't find. (I'm not sure where to look, and its not easy to see) I have cushman repair/parts/accessory manuals which I got on Ebay. The repair manual is not for my exact model, but there is enough information it will be a help. The parts manual is for my model and I do have part numbers but I'm not sure if that is the number they are looking for. Did Cushman make their own distributors (timers as they call them) or where they manufactured by someone else like GM or maybe a motorcycle manufactuer? They look awfully similar to what older bikes use, and I know Pertronix makes products for old Harleys. I can't tell if/where there is a number on that distributor that matches the number in the book.

Pat

CharleyL

There are some manuals on the Sillylittlecars website for free download. You should check there for one that applies to your Truckster. One of them may be closer than what you already have. If it's not there, go to the Jacobsen website. They have many Cushman manuals there for free download. For my 1987 Truckster the manual is 826767. The 826767 supplement for that manual contains the motor service information and the electrical diagrams for my Truckster. There is no exact manual for any Truckster. Each manual applies to a group of Truckster model numbers and they are listed on the front cover of the manuals.

I have no idea where the timer on these motors came from. Mine works, so I didn't need anything for it, but I'm quite certain that neither Cushman nor OMC made it themselves if they could buy it from another manufacturer. The carburetors, starters, generators, etc. were all purchased from other OEM companies. For these, the only numbers that I've found have been the Cushman numbers from the manuals. You will probably need to search for similar products made by other manufacturers to see if one of them makes a timer that looks like the one in the Cushman OMC motors and then compare the specifications for both. If you do find a match, please post the information to help others. I once tried to get information from OMC and they seem to refuse to acknowledge that they ever had anything to do with these engines or Cushman. At least that's the impression that I got from them, but OMC owned Cushman all through the 80's. The fact that Cushman changed owners several times from the 1980's until they closed seems to have made finding information for their products very difficult.

Charley

junkandcattle

Go to the following link under out of production units for free download manuals. I also searched for solid state modules for my 89 truckster and came to the conclusion they don't exist. I refreshed my timer and have been quite happy so far.

http://www.jacobsen.com/americas-manuals/

Toolmiester

Well after about 2 weeks of contacting old friends and searching the net I have to agree with Junkandcattle, they don't exist. Darn it.

Toolmiester

Thanks for all your help guys. One of my friends did think that the time on the old OMC engines did sound an awful lot like his 69 Harley, and he did have a solid state module for it. I would love to know if it would work. Anyway I have more questions on engine performance, I'll start a new thread.

Pat

CharleyL

Coming up with a solid state driver to drive the ignition coils is easy. Coming up with a modification to install a solid state photo or magnetic sensor in the timer will be the difficult part. You can use the existing points to drive a solid state driver to operate the ignition coils and this will eliminate the contact burn of the points, but without any significant current flow through the points tarnish will build and you will again have point problems, although they won't burn anymore. A magnetic or photo replacement for the points will require some special design and prototyping. With such a low demand for after market parts for these OMC motors I doubt that any company would be interested in developing this product.

Although many motorcycles are 2 cylinder, I doubt that anyone of the manufacturers use something that can be used in place of, or to modify the OMC timer that we have. As an EE I feel quite comfortable with designing the electronics to do this, but I am not a tool maker/machinist or a small motor mechanic, so this part is way beyond me, although I'm quite certain that the right person could do it.

Charley

73eldo

Here is what I did on my harley carts and a couple other engines. New set of Standard Ignition Blue Streak brand points and I have not touched em in years. The quality of about 90% of the points these days seems to be crap on a good day.

CharleyL

Your modification removes the high current flow from the points by using a solid state driver to drive the coil. This will certainly make the points last longer, but the very low current then flowing through the points will not be sufficient to burn off any tarnish or dirt build-up on the point contacts. The fiber cam follower part of the points will also wear over time, making cleaning and adjustment of the points still necessary. The automotive solid state ignition systems use either magnetic or photo sensors and associated electronics to replace the points and timer cam. This is what I was referring to in my post #8.

Your modification only solves half of the problem.

Charley