Champion Spark Plug cleaner/tester

[Stepney 2,325]

Evening, all. Grabbed this dinosaur today. It's a Champion plug cleaner/tester. Has a little sand blaster in the top and various rubber plugs for different threads. It has a button hooked to a model T ford ignition coil, and a little mount with mirrors on top to see into the plug as it fires, along with what seems to be some sort of ammeter. 

So far nothing works at all, but I have hardly looked into it. There's a large rotating knob in the top that does .. something? Havent figured it out yet. The rest seems fairly obvious and its just stuck from sitting. 

Has anyone messed with one of these dinosaurs?

I see tons of pictures online, but no videos of one working, nor any posts of someone talking about one..

[ebinmaine 67,286]

What a super cool piece of automobilia. 

@Oldskool @953 nut 

 

Any information?

[roadapples 6,983]

Remember useing them to clean plugs many moons ago but don't know anything about them...

[Oldskool 6,640]

1 hour ago, ebinmaine said:

What a super cool piece of automobilia. 

@Oldskool @953 nut 

 

Any information?

That is a neat piece. My cousin has one quite similar to that

[peter lena 8,583]

STEPNEY,  BOY YHAT BRINGS BACK MEMORIES , back in the day  at the garage there was always horsing around , hooked the same champion  tester up to the front bench and waited for the next hit, usually a newbie , just jump up and sit on the bench , start talking and ZAP ! the response was always worth it , probably get arrested today   

[Stormin 9,981]

 An uncle of mine had his own garage business. When he died my father and I had the job of clearing the garage. There was one of those there. Unfortunately I don't know what happened to it. I think my father had it but after his death it wasn't in his workshop.

[Stepney 2,325]

21 minutes ago, peter lena said:

STEPNEY,  BOY YHAT BRINGS BACK MEMORIES , back in the day  at the garage there was always horsing around , hooked the same champion  tester up to the front bench and waited for the next hit, usually a newbie , just jump up and sit on the bench , start talking and ZAP ! the response was always worth it , probably get arrested today   

Heard many a tale like that, the T coil sends an awful jolt..

[ACman 7,618]

Still have one like this at the AC dealership. Used the sandblasted part cleaning plugs for the snowmobile (Champion N2C for Rotax 377) growing up.

 

[oliver2-44 9,696]

my dad had a benchtop model like this at our LagrangeAirport/farm Shop.

@Stepney " There's a large rotating knob in the top that does .. something? Havent figured it out yet. "  If i remember correctly that unit is hooked up to an air pressure supply.  Rotating that knob/wheel increases pressure in the chamber that the plug is screwed into. so you can see the plug firing simulating engine cylinder pressure.

 

1 hour ago, ACman said:

Still have one like this at the AC dealership. Used the sandblasted part cleaning plugs for the snowmobile (Champion N2C for Rotax 377) growing up.

 

 

 

[953 nut 55,091]

10 hours ago, oliver2-44 said:

unit is hooked up to an air pressure supply.  Rotating that knob/wheel increases pressure in the chamber that the plug is screwed into. so you can see the plug firing simulating engine cylinder pressure

Right on Jim.    We had one in the gas station I worked at in the '60s. When a car was running rough we would see which cylinder was dead bu pulling plug wires on and off while the engine was running. Once the dead cylinder was found we would test the plug without pressure and then watch it fail with increased pressure. Then of course we would tell the customer that all the plugs should be changed, it was a good sales tool. Many customers would bring in lawn mower plugs and we would clean and test them for free.

@Stepney, thanks for the trip down memory lane.

 

[lynnmor 7,302]

If you ever looked down into a sandblasted plug with a microscope, you would never use one.