• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Ignition woes continue

Share this page

A

Andre the Giant

Jedi Hopeful
Offline
Some of you may remember (or still might be trying to forget) my '79 Midget carburation problem, which eventually was diagnosed as an ignition problem. The symptoms were that the vehicle idled fine but when gas was applied, the car acted like it was getting no fuel. That problem was fixed when I did the following.

The car has a CEI Distributor, (not OPUS) and I replaced the plugs, wires, dist cap, rotor, and coil (with a Lucas Sport coil.) I gapped the plugs a little wider than called for. Now the engine won't start at all. The engine spins, the wire from the coil spits out rapid blue sparks when held against the engine block, the plug wires do the same. I've checked the carb to make sure it's getting fuel.

I'm thinking I may need to gap the plugs back down a little. I may have gone too far. Any other ideas?

Thanks,

Andy
 
got the wires in the cap,in the right order?

...and correct firing order? (1,3,4,2)
 
do the plugs fire when held against the head?
 
As has been said, do the plugs create spark when held against the block? I know you said the wires do - how about double checking the plugs.

I have a Lucas Sport Coil on my B and opened the plugs up to .035, also changed to platinum plugs when I made the coil change.

Finally, if you pulled the distributor out for some reason you might have somehow put it back in a different position, moving cyl position #1 to the #2 position, etc - throwing the timing off by a cylinder. I suppose the same could happen just changing the wires too, accidentally moving all the wires over one position.

Good luck, let us know how it goes.
 
My next step will be to make sure I have the correct firing order. I hope it's that simple. I haven't tried checking to see if the plugs are actually firing yet. Maybe tomarrow at lunch. (Or tonight if I get the chance.) Thanks for the suggestions.
cheers.gif
 
Sounds like a firing order problem to me, too. Did that the one time I changed plugs on my Midget-and spend several hours tracing the fault. What's sadder is that I had marked the plug wires beforehand......
blush.gif

-Wm.
 
The "Beast" is running again.
lol.gif


First: I checked the firing order and it was fine.
Second: I checked the wires for spark and they were all fine.
Third: I then checked the plugs for spark and when I removed them I found that 1,3 & 4 were dark and dirty (like they hadn't been firing). Hmmm, they were clean and shiny when I regapped them the other day. I checked each plug and they all fired, although the three that I mentioned appeared to have a weaker spark than plug #2, (which was clean, and had inadvertantly been gapped to around .026) So I regapped them down from .032 to .026 and lo and behold, the car started up just fine.

Vrrroooom!

Maybe I was expecting a bit too much and gapped them a bit too far. Is it possible that .006 difference in gap can cause such problems?!?

Thanks for the help, I feel a bit stupid when it comes to the ignition system.
crazy.gif


[ 06-04-2003: Message edited by: Andre the Giant ]</p>
 
Yes - It is possible. Especially since the problem started when you increased the gaps. It is about a 23% increase in required spark voltage. Seems like an awfully weak spark though. I think that something else is wrong to cause such a weak spark or maybe your ignition is just designed weak. The "sport" coil may not be a correct match to your system.
D

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Andre the Giant:
The "Beast" is running again.
Maybe I was expecting a bit too much and gapped them a bit too far. Is it possible that .006 difference in gap can cause such problems?!?
]<hr></blockquote>
 
Dave suggestion makes more sense!! I have had mine gapped t .032 from day one!! There is not even a hint of a problem!! I put in the sport coil, but I never changed anything and it worked grat! i put in a Petronix and still never changed anything, not a hint of a problem!! I bet i could go .040 and be fine!!
cheers.gif
Anve a beer, big guy!!
 
Andy,
What I was getting at is that the CEI ignition usually requires a low resistance - low inductance coil to work properly.

The Lucas Sport coil is not low resistance - low inductance. You may actually get better spark with the correct stock factory coil, which is designed for CEI, than with the sport coil.
D
 
Back
Top