1959 Mercury Mark 35A - Reeds?

Just like the title says - I'm wondering if this thing has reeds and if they might be bad. Anyone out there have an idea? I couldn't find anything about reeds in the parts manual so I'm assuming it does not have them but I thought I'd ask the experts.

They are located on the crankshaft.

And they rarely ever fail.

Jeff

The reeds are way inside the motor.-----What is your motor doing / not doing ??----Reeds are very reliable and a lot of work to replace.

The engine isn’t starting currently. I’ve checked just about everything except for reeds at this point. Compression is good but as I understand it that’s not diagnostic for reed failure. Do you know what i could do to test if it’s the reeds? I’ve checked just about everything else.

Why so you you say they rarely fail? I’ve seen reeds fail on a lot of other two strokes. Are these reeds somehow different? The reeds on my atv and dirt bike were both plastic flap-looking things.

I see that you have been struggling with 12 volts and this magneto already.-------Does spark jump a gap of 5/16" when you spin the magneto by hand, yes or no ?---- Accept the fact that the reeds are very reliable on these motors.-----And likely you would not see all 4 sets fail at once either.--The motor would start and run on 3 cylinders.--Find the real problem with the motor.-----Have you taken the bottom of the magneto off to clean / set points ?----If not do so.--Set points at 0.010" on these fine magnetos.--Test spark before re-installing the magneto.------Checked timing of the magneto relative to the crankshaft ?-----What other repair / trouble shooting has been done ?-----If you could walk over to me you would find all the parts needed to fix that engine as I have more than 1 of those white Mercury motors.

Glad to hear somebody out there has parts.

I've done just about everything I can think of, but I am a novice. I had the magneto apart and cleaned and set the points. It gets spark in the right order and I aligned the spark timing to the timing mark on the flywheel, so I think that's all set. As for the strength of the spark, it's a little suspect. As I said earlier I get consistent blue sparks, but jumping 5/16" seems very far. I doubt it would be able to do that, but who knows.

Other things I've done:
Cleaned carbs
All new fuel lines
All new sparks
Tested lines from magneto - all good
Tested compression - good

I have been trying to run it without the fuel pump attached by just hand feeding it with the primer bulb. Could that do it? I assumed this wouldn't cause an issue as long as the carb reservoirs were filled (they were)

That magneto in good condition will jump a gap of 5/16" or more with ease when you spin just the magneto by hand.----You test this before installing the unit on the motor.-----Spinning it by hand you would see spark that would make you think you were in an electrical storm !!----The motor fuel pump has nothing to do with starting the motor if carburetors are full.----The bulb is nothing but a manual fuel pump.----If spark does NOT jump a 5/16" gap , your magneto needs expert attention !!!