Oh no, I have no thought of successfully "disassembling" a saw ignition module. But I'm not sure that having electrical "specifications" for chainsaw ignitions is a waste of time. Indeed, the total impracticality of getting "into" a module is one reason I vote for disclosure. It is possible to "observe" chainsaw ignition by taking the chain off, putting the bar in a vise, attaching a pickup to the plug wire and a "degree wheel" (of various forms) to the open clutch side. Depending on the pickup it is also possible to get a useful measure of secondary voltage, etc.
The motives are several: 1. Fixing individual saws. (Some module is brand new, put on a saw, and its sorta starts, but you've got to pull super fast at the cord to get it to go. Is it not making spark until it gets spun faster than usual pull? What does it owe you at what speed?) 2. Developing a kind of "community" consensus and understanding. One set of saws shows ... 18kv on the plug wire (at pull on the cord), another is characteristically 12 kv -- and has a tendency to foul. Worth knowing -- and even maybe having an opinion about. 3. There are people pushing ignition advance -- which is fine -- but they are a bit too much at the mercy of "cut and try" (and somewhat "get lucky") methods. Figuring out that Q degrees of advance is good, and Q+ really isn't -- is worth it to them.
So. No worries. We've all got a lot of ignition modules that do a lot of workiing -- and which we might as well just not worry about. But, I do continue to think that knowing about modules, rather than not knowing is, in its own way, gooder.
