Dhc-1 pilot reported a magneto failure resulting in an off airport landing.

Attributes
ACN	1570634
Time
Date	201808
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	De Havilland Canada Undifferentiated or Other Model
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Descent
Route In Use	Direct Visual Approach
Flight Plan	VFR
Component
Aircraft Component	Ignition System
Person 1
Function	Single Pilot
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 25 Flight Crew Total 1350 Flight Crew Type 350
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

Narrative:

After replacing points in a magneto which had destroyed itself; I flew back to the home base. A few miles from base I had a total engine failure. I did not have enough altitude to make the runway and set down in a field. There is no apparent damage to the aircraft. Apparently the gipsy major engine runs both magnetos from a common drive. It is believed the common drive failed.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: DHC-1 pilot reported a magneto failure resulting in an off airport landing.

Narrative: After replacing points in a magneto which had destroyed itself; I flew back to the home base. A few miles from base I had a total engine failure. I did not have enough altitude to make the runway and set down in a field. There is no apparent damage to the aircraft. Apparently the Gipsy Major engine runs both magnetos from a common drive. It is believed the common drive failed.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.