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Re: No Spark Questions/I'm frustrated!!

To: "seanan@crosslink.net" <seanan@crosslink.net>,
Subject: Re: No Spark Questions/I'm frustrated!!
From: "alemen@pop.ftconnect.com" <alemen@pop.ftconnect.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 19:08:53 -0400
Sean, Before you do any more do you still have the pink/white wire attached and 
not shorted out from the solenoid to the coil. This is because the oldLucas 
coils were menat for a ballast resistor system and the Sports coil for a non 
ballasted one, so you will get about half of what you expect on the Sports 
coil. It should get full voltage on it's +ve terminal I believe.

Simple diagnostics. Get the distributer out of the equation. Disconnect the -ve 
side of the coil. Use a piece of wire to short it to ground. Measure the 
voltage on the +ve terminal of the coil. Ignition on (red light on the dash).
For the Sports coil without ballast it should be close to battery voltage. For 
an original coil with the ballast it should be close to half battery votlage. 
You need to get this correct before you go on. 

If all was not OK then depending upon the voltege depends what's wrong.

If the old coil was getting full voltage all the time with the ballast shorted 
then it's potentially done for. On he other hand if the ballast is not shorted 
then the new coil is not getting full voltage.

Then if all is OK - put a timing light on the coil output lead (HT) and tap the 
-ve side on and off ground you should see a flash or use a lead with a spark 
plug and the body of the plug grounded and you should see a spark. Make sure 
you insulate yourself fom the HT. If no spark it would indicate a bad coil.  
You should see the +ve side voltage going up and down if you have a voltmeter 
connected and you are tapping the -ve side on and off ground.

Alan



Original Message:
-----------------
From: Sean & Shannon Twigg seanan@crosslink.net
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 18:06:47 -0400
Subject: No Spark Questions/I'm frustrated!!



Everyone,
        I seem to have a number of degenerative problems with my 1980 Spitfire.
Currently I am getting no spark from the coil.  I purchased a new one (Lucas
Sports Coil) and the old one was less than three months old (Lucas 15B6
ballasted coil).   I was getting a weak orange spark up until a few days ago
wit the old coil.  The battery drained from all my attempts at starting the
car.  So I put in a good one that I had sitting around (It has a full charge
BTW).   I've tried two different distributors (one points, one electronic)
to no avail.  The high tension wire from the coil to the distributor
produces no spark when I turn the engine over.  I can hear the starter whir
and there's compression.   The wiring around the coil looks different than
what  the Bentley and Factory Reprint manuals indicate.  There are two
white/slate wires coming from the harness that are spliced together to
attach to the - side and a simple white wire that attached to the + side.  I
found the white/yellow that was indicated in the wiring diagram, but it was
cut back so I spliced a wire o it and attached it to the + terminal without
any effect.  There are no white/black wires coming from the harness, the
only one left is a black one connected to the PDWA(?).  The white wire I
mentioned above was connected to the white wire that is meant for the drive
resistor (which is not on the system).   The car was modified at one time to
have the Lucas CEI system, which does have a white/black wire coming from
the module and was attached to the coil before the CEI system died and I
replaced the distributor in that system with a points one from a parts car.
I tried a listquest search but it seems to be down at the moment.
Hopefully I didn't leave anything out of this description and am in
desperate need of help. Thanks for any suggestions.

Slanté (And I do need a drink right now)
Sean Twigg
'80 Spitfire




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