1973 XL 223 Red

[edwh]

Hi All, I am new to this forum and need some help. I just purchased a 1973 XL 12 and cleaned it up and installed new spark plug, old one appears original. I adjusted the idle and high speed and replaced the chain with a new 20 inch Oregon.

I found that the piston had some deep small gouges looking through the exhaust port, seems some of the coke must have worked down the cylinder walls and scratched up the piston.

I have a old compression gauge and cannot screw it into the spark plug port, have to hold it with one hand and pull cord with the other and got 75 lbs of pressure on gauge. I believe it over this as it runs well.

This is my problem, my next adjustment was to adjust the points so pulled off the starter housing and the flywheel and low and behold no points and appears there never were any. No housing or cover or screw holes to hold point housing to bracket that holds the Mag. Coil. I cannot find any point replacement module anywhere and my info obtained from seller said he talked with previous and it never had any service work done on saw it is as purchased new. Since it runs and adjusts well, I have to assume that there is a point module built into the Mag coil. All wire are original, one to kill switch and one to ground on the mag bracket and again appears never to have been tampered with.

Can anyone shed any light as to what I might have?? Again nothing indicates ever to have been tampered with. No extra wires or wire nuts, nothing, what am I missing. EdWh

[MCS]

Hi and welcome to this forum.
How did you determine the saw is a 1973 and what does the title of this thread mean XL-223?
What color is the coil?
Can you post the serial number?

[edwh]

Hi Moderator. Thanks for reply. Sorry about heading, mistake, should be XL 12 Red.
Serial number begins with 3- 391430355. Model UT 10445B. Seller said he knows original owner who had for 20 years and gave it to his brother who cut firewood for several years before seller received so works out.

Coil appears blue colored. All leads are factory crimped to metal terminals no splices, no wire nuts, all appears factory. EdWh

[MCS]

On the nine digit serial it is the second digit that gives the year. Your serial 391430355 shows it to be a 1979 which makes sense because you have a blue ignition module and not points, condenser, and coil.
As you've found out, those "hold in place" compression gauges don't work well with chain saws.

[edwh]

Hi Mcs. Thanks for the message and info. Fine on the 1979 still falls into info I received from seller so will take your info as correct.
I still have one question about the ignition system as from what you have said the coil has a built in regulator of some sort to control ignition advance and retard. My question is are these magneto coils still available??, as it appears that none of the point mechanical system is available. If not can I replace if need be with a regular Magneto coil and use a solid state module to have a working system?? Thanks. EdWh

[MCS]

The blue coil is an "all in one" unit. There are no points or anything else. The only things that make up the ignition is this coil and the rotor. The part number I have for this blue module is A94605S but this subs to A00815 which the listing says it is the module and rotor. These parts are getting harder and harder to find. You could change it to a point system and then use a solid state device that eliminates the points and condenser.
There is no spark advance with the blue module.

[edwh]

Hi Mcs, Thanks again for the info. I found a download for this model of a parts list and it shows two coils one as you state a A 946055 solid sate model and core. The other is the coil with point lead A 94325. So it appears the mounting would be the same on the bracket so as you say I could buy regular coil if I could not find the blue one and use a Module to replace the points.
I will keep all this info in case of problems and thank you for all the info you furnished. I owned a Blue and White model XL 12 back in the 80's and used it in the woods for over 5 years. In the end it shut down and I gave it away in 2000, should have kept it. Thanks again for all the help. You have helped a
Korean Vet and part of WW11 Germany Occupation in 1947. EdWh

[edwh]

Hi Mcs. Thanks for all the help and I am sure this will help others for as I did know that Homelite had some XL 12's with a Magneto with solid state points modules built in, they now have the info to identify these models.

You can close this thread and God Bless. EdWh