Rob, I jumpered out the regulator in the timer boards.. All working perfect now! Since I only will use 4.8 volt battery packs, it won't be needed.. thanks !
Question for you.. what does the 2 pins marked BREAK on the component picture do? can't get anything out of these two pins.. other than my initial problems with battery voltage, everything is working great now..except for timing light feature, but I don't use that anyway.
Making more boards for the rest of my planes that had fixed timing. What a joy it is to have the engines easily start now.!

John