ORIGINAL: Stickbuilder
........set mine up as you did yours. You probably saved me tons of headaches. You don't know how happy I am that you caught this.
Did you send your 26 out to Ralph for the Ignition change? I wonder if that would be worthwhile...It's probably expensive as all get out. I think that before I did that, I would do an engine swap, and just buy another G-26, but with the electronic ignition.
I'm happy it's gonna work out for you. I haven't done any mods to my -26, runs fine as is, and the weight of the stock engine is perfect to balance the plane without having to add "useless" weight. I don't know how to post the link, but there's a thread on the gas engines forum that has some pics of a G-26 worked over by Ralph; you wouldn't even recognize it as a Zenoah. Electronic ignition, and the flywheel in back is gone, the engine case looks like a Desert Aircraft, it's so small. On a plane where you don't want the nose weight, the modification would be worth it.
This engine isn't hard to start, especially after it's been run a while. It has capacitive discharge ignition, which puts a hotter spark to the plug and doesn't require quite as much of a prop flip to get enough from the magneto to fire the plug. My procedure to start it is to close the choke, switch off, throttle open, and give it a few quick flips to pull gas into the carb. Then I turn on the ignition switch, throttle full, and flip until it fires (usually three to five). Then open the choke, throttle at 1/4 or slightly less, and flip until it starts, usually twice or three times. This is for a cold start, once warmed up it usually takes one or two with the choke and then one or two without. I can't believe that EI would make it much easier to start, and then you have another battery to charge and worry about. The magneto engine will always run as long as there's gas in the tank.
Looks like you found the thread I was talking about. I was looking at doing this for a Super Decathlon I bought, because I really like the G-26, but I found another engine that served my needs without having to send it off for mods. My other concern for the Super D was a prop shaft long enough to allow the engine to clear the chin of the cowl. I certainly didn't want to cut it in front. I went with a BT32EI Fuji. Would have used the magneto version, but the flywheel is in front on the mag version and was afraid it would have rubbed the top of the cowl.