Shift kit + expansion chamber

That then begs the question, why does the cdi have a ground wire if the circut is completed through the spark plug and engine? The whole system seems more complicated than it really needs to be. I'm going to get my father to take a look at it and see what he comes up with.

One thing I'm thinking of doing is to take the ground wire, solder it to the common ground directly (make a bare patch in the middle of it or something), possibly pulling up one of the layers of the mag core so that I can heat it easier, have another part of the ground attached to the engine directly, and let the other end connect to the cdi. ...something like that anyway.

I read through a roll your own mag thread and from what I remember, the guy wasn't having much luck.

Firstly, there was clearly some misunderstanding. In your previous post, it is now obvious to me that you were referring to the schematic of the electrical system (particularly that of the magneto and it's solder points). I was applying what you said to what I have in front of me (physically, not schematically), which does not have the black ground wire soldered to the common ground point, ergo, it was not even listed in your circuit, and that is what made me ask why it was even needed if it wasn't in the circuit. Although, admittedly, I am not particularly familiar with CDIs and didn't know if it might have been utilized for timing the spark or was simply a failsafe ground connection or if it was indeed completing the circuit (taking into account the previous assumption).

These pictures illustrate what I mean by the layers of the magneto core (the "chunk of metal" I was referring to in a previous post), and the fact that the black wire is not soldered to the mag.



I'm not "opening" anything other than the mag cover on my engine. Let me detail the "re-wiring [of] the frigg'n magneto": Take the ground wire off of the mag (which currently is bolted to the mag via a crimp on hoop tongue terminal, the way the chinese made it) and solder it directly to the engine. Next, I will strip the insulation from a small section of the wire to solder it to the common ground, where the blue and white wire are currently soldered to the magneto core (Note: I will also attempt to pull the corner where the wires are soldered away from the main block to ease the task of heating the materials to get the proper wetting). Finally, I will attach the free end of the black wire to the CDI, completing the circuit.
This is schematically the same circuit as it was previously, just with a bonded ground and better overall connectivity.

Furthermore, I am no novice. I make no claims to be an expert, but I am apprenticed to a master.
Multimeter? Yes, I have two. Learn how to use it? I am already there. For instance, did you know you can measure the available amperage of a power source (such as the mag) using the volt scale? It's easy, you just introduce a resistor with a known value, and do a little algebra. Ohm's law, if you didn't know, can be expressed as I=V/R. If you have a 10 ohm resistor, and you read 6 VAC with your meter in series, you have a 0.6 A available source.

I have a few words of advice for you. For your safety, and those whom you give your "lessons" to, you should first test your meter on a known good circuit before testing a wall outlet. If you don't, and your meter is dead, you will be too.