Hi all,
Thanks to all those who gave suggestions on my ignition problem,
thanks.
It turned out that the pickup itself was good, but the connector was
bad for some reason, so I clipped the plug off and installed a new
connector. I was now getting spark.
The engine:
'80 vintage 18V engine with newer-style electronic ignition. (45DM)
New problem:
The car now gets spark (yaaay!) I even got it running. I set the
timing at 1500 RPM per the book. The car idles reasonably well, but
spits, sputters, and coughs as you rev it up (even slowly). So I
checked the timing again. This time I noticed that the timing was
actually retarding as the RPMs were increased! I furrowed my brow and
concertedly wondered if this was a joke being played on me for being
an Aggie. Obviously this explained the reluctance to run poorer as
RPMs increased... so I began investigating.
I pulled the distributor out, disassembled and inspected the unit to
see if there was any possible way that I could have put something
together backwards. I checked it against the pictoral breakdown in
some of the books. I checked the vacuum unit... everything was as it
should be. Consternation set in.
I put the unit back in and cranked the car. Still doing the same
thing... I swapped the distributor out for a 25D unit and cranked the
car. It ran and revved freely up to high RPMs, the strobe showed the
ignition advancing as it should....
The only thing changed on the electronic system is the connector. It
is possible that I hooked up the pickup wires in reverse of what they
were before. Would this cause the ignition box to see a negative
voltage and maybe make it cause this flaky problem? It is the only
thing I can think of at the moment. I didn't have time last night to
switch the distributor back and switch the connection, so I thought
I'd ask while I'm stuck here at work. Has anyone ever seen this
problem? Comments, theories?
Rick Guynn
'73/'79 hybrid MGB
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