Lister junior A.

Hi , wondering has anyone had this scenario before. Bought a lister junior A as a non runner. Got the few missing bits and assembled them . It had a mag that was giving a spark in both directions. It wouldn't start, good compression, plenty fuel everything seemed ok. I was cranking it clockwise, changed the timing for anticlockwise and cranked it from opposite flywheel. Started no bother. Is it unusual for a mag to spark both ways , admittedly sparks better in one direction. Any thoughts on that. Thanks in advance, trout.

Trout ??

Only just come back to this - apologies.
To be honest I'm not sure about sparking in both directions but I don't see why not. What sort of magneto is it?
I understand that quite a few magnetos could be changed rotation by swapping over points or cam. As an aside there is some useful in on The Magneto Guys website.

Probably the sparking better in one direction is key here, there is as good chsnce it wont be sparking under compression the non-running way you tried it.

Chris