Upsets me too - because it's total crap, like the job he's done. Disgraceful attitude.
A decently rebuilt mag should offer near-as-dammit identical points gap on both cylinders and near-as-dammit 180 degrees apart. Cam rings are available if there was actually anything wrong with yours, and one should have been fitted if there was. Might not be as good as a one-off grind to suit a particular mag, but hell of a lot better than what you've been left with. Without getting into a pissing competition, Dave Lindsley wouldn't send out a mag like that, nor would SRM - 2 people I have used in recent years, although like MG I prefer to do my own. Nor would Tony Cooper or Shaun Hawker, as A101960 says, although I've not used them myself.
Just because you're a long way away, I suspect you've been fed a load of bullshit. At least forums like this make sure that adverse publicity gets spread around, although it's no comfort to you. No-one would send back a mag in that state if he had a reputation worth guarding. All too reminiscent of Manosounds 'machine shop' a year or two back.
Now, assuming that at least the armature has been rewound (or proved good) and a new condenser fitted, you should at least have guts that are capable of working.
I reckon you'd be capable of sorting the rest of it out - they're actually not so hard to get to bits - it's the rewinds that are hard.
First thing I'd do is look at the state of the bearings. Is there any slop on the bearing at the contact breaker end when you wiggle the whole thing by the backplate? Ditto at the other end? If there is, either the bearings or the insulation washers that go between the outer race and the magneto body (drive end) or outer race and cb housing (points end) need replacing, or you need a shim - either behind the inner race of a bearing (awkward to fit) or more likely between the end housing at the cb end and the magneto main body (easy). If there is up and down play at the drive end, the oil seal in there won't last long and you'll have that messy problem too. I'd hope the man has replaced the insulators and oil seal and fitted shims, so there probably isn't any slack, but you never know.
Does the contact breaker assembly rotate dead in the middle of the magneto - ie can you see if it's running eccentrically when you rotate it? If you hold the mag body in a vice, and rig up a fixed pointer to just kiss the head of the screw that holds the points on as you turn it by hand from the other end, you'll see if it's more than a few thou out pretty easily. (Best to turn it with the sparking plugs on the leads and the plugs attached to the same vice as an 'earth' by the way.) If it isn't turning true, it's either because the bearing that end is not centralised because the housing isn't on dead square or because the insulator behind the bearing is askew or because there's too much end float for the lack of a shim. Slackening the small screws that attach the end housing to the main body of the mag, wiggling and retightening might help. It's not a shim problem though if the armature doesn't have any end-float when you push and pull it axially. Worst case, the outer race of a seized bearing has spun in the housing some time in its life and enlarged it so nothing will make it true again. But hopefully that would have been picked up even by a moron.
Assuming it is all dead square, with no slop in the bearings and no end float, are there still differences between the points gap for the left and right cylinder and in degrees? If so, all other things being equal, either the cam ring is worn or, in relation to the first point, the gap, the cone on the contact-breaker back-plate is a poor fit and the backplate isn't seating dead squarely on the armature. Hopefully the female taper on the armature is OK.
I would hope that FTW managed to produce a set of points that are in reasonable shape and that the backplate is indeed a good fit on the taper - and that the keyway in the armature and the raised key on the backplate are still OK. But I begin to doubt everything in light of what you say they said to you.
For any parts you might need except the armature, I find the easiest and fastest people are Independent Ignition Supplies (
www.magneto.co.uk). They do all the little bits by return post, from pick-ups and carbon brushes and springs, screws, points, shims, bearings, insulators etc etc and I've been very happy with their service. (I currently have an order in myself for some condensers and other little bits.) Look on their site under 'Joseph Lucas K1F, K2F and KVF', which are all basically similar on the parts front, bar the slip rings.
Trouble is, you shouldn't have to be paying twice over - wish I could think of a way of getting your money back, or some of it. It's a bloody disgrace. But it reinforces something Dave Lindsley said to me recently when I sent him a manual K2F on behalf of a friend -
'Half the mags I do are mags that have supposedly been redone by other people and are completely useless'. He was very uncomplimentary, more so than a family forum allows me to quote! You get what you pay for I guess - he's not cheap - but he guarantees his work for 2 years and the finished result I saw looked better than new inside and out.
If you need a step by step guide to how to get the thing apart, I'd say there are a hundred people here happy to help you. The only hard bit (apart from rewinding and the condenser), is bearing inner and outer race removal and replacement. Which does need to be done with great care - and preferably a correct tool.
Meantime, are you going to hassle FTW for some of your money back? The reek of bad publicity could be a weapon . . .
Good luck anyway! Reckon I'm as irritated as you!
