I have a plane with a G 38 on it. Starts and runs fine, but after it warms up, it cuts out. Just goes silent for a microsecond and then runs again. It has done this since I got it. Needless to say, I haven't flown it much. I DO NOT believe it is a fuel problem. It is as if someone turns off the igniton momentarily then turns it back on before the prop quits spinning. My feeling is the coil or the module or whatever you call the thing that the spark plug wire comes out of has a glitch. Is this possible? Has anyone here ever had this problem before? I found what I believe is a replacement part ( http://roguerc.com/catalog/ZENOAH-G3...e-p-28247.html) but it is over 50 dollars and I don't want to spend that kind of cash on a "maybe." Does somebody have an old one sitting around they can give me or sell me cheap? The tag on the motor says:

G38OPU 013942 Komatsu Zenoah Co. made in Japan.

Thanks!
Rick

Call Ralph....he'll have one, for less $$, and will have plenty of knowledge for you to test your existing equipment before committing to new parts.

Ralph Cunningham
928 635 2455


Don't hesitate, he's the guy you want to deal with here.

Somebody screwed up that one...The wire on the back with the lug on it should be permanently connected to ground..The black wire on the front is soldered to a tab...Leave it on there...To connect a kill switch, solder a wire on to the tab..Connect one side of the switch to that wire, connect the other side to ground..When the switch is closed the engine will stop...
Try the engine with be back wire connected to ground and no switch in the circuit...The glitch should stop....

Rick....in case you didn't already know. RC Ignition and Ralph are one in the same

I got a nice photo of Ralph holding a very nice Herbason twin cylinder engine, which was taken about 2 months ago at the USRA Pylon Races. Boy if you get a chance, go to one of the Races. I sure am glad I did! Lots of high-teck engine stuff in the race planes. Capt,n P.S. Ralph is pretty cool too!

Thanks, Ralph! Here is a picture of the other side of the module. The black wire if you can see it comes out of the case and is soldered, apparently right back to it. There is no tab. I suppose the solder lump replaces the tab on this module. Since I posted, I placed shrink wrap on the wire with the lug if you are wondering why it turned green. So if I read you correctly, if I connect the lugged wire to ground, the glitch will go away, and if I want to wire a kill switch, it must go from the short wire on the front to the switch, which other end is to be grounded.

In the meantime, I put a module from a Ryobi 31 on the G 38 just to see if there was a spark with it. It fit fine but it has only 2 mounting holes instead of 3. Cut to the chase, there is a spark. Haven't had a chance to run it yet tho.
Rick

Here is my G38...wires are easy to see in this photo. P.S. on mine I replaced the Hi-tension lead to sparkplug. It threads onto a screw in H.T.wire hole! Capt,n

The original coils have an unshielded wire on the back with a lug spotwelded to the laminations of the coil...It WILL work the way yours is, but was not intended to...John's picture shows the front as it should be...The black wired comes out of the coil and is soldered to a lug..Your lug is under the lump of solder..It's less likely to have an intermittent problem with a permanent ground as originally made...Don''t put too much heat on the lump when soldering the wire to it....I have a few used ones if yours is bad, $20 + shipping...Tested on my own G38....