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bertracoon1616

Member

• Jan 7, 2012

• #1

Hey guys, strange one here, my ignition coil is creating a blue spark that jumps between the main body, specifically the cone that the lead plugs on to, and the positive terminal.

If i start it up it is fine for about 30 seconds then i hear this ticking and you can see the spark i was talking about. You also hear the engine speed drop slightly with each spark.

The spark is intermittent, sometimes a few a second and sometimes 10 seconds without.

Ive replaced both the coil and the lead and the problem persists. Ive also put a rubber plug over the positive treminal and this has helped but now the spark is jumping to the Negative terminal!! The spark is less frequent on the -ve terminal.

The car runs fine, apart from this drop in engine speed but its not ideal.

The coil is a Lucas and comes in a green box, i replaced it with the same one as was on it before.

Any ideas welcome

Ally

 

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dirtydiscov8

New Member

• Jan 7, 2012

• #2

Electricity will always take the easiest path to ground. Worth checking the earth straps around the engine bay and ignition amplifier. Try another dizzy cap if you have one too

 

jamesmartin

Well-Known Member

• Jan 7, 2012

• #3

is it damp under lead insulation or cracked coil around where lead fits ,check also dizzy cap (carbon brush as well )leads and plugs

 

Mr Noisy

Coming in your ears.

• Jan 7, 2012

• #4

Plug leads should fit tight at both ends, no dirt or water in contacts.

You probably have a bad plug or lead tbh, if it's just arcing on one cylinder.

Get it to start doing the arc, then take each lead off the plug one by one. Find out which plug it is that stops the arcing at the coil. Stop engine and swap plug with cylinder next door. Try again, if problem has moved to other cylinder it's that plug. Fit a new set tbh. If not, it's the lead or the connection at the dizzy. Measure the lead resistance and compare with others. Look inside the dizzy cap? Does that contact look burned?

Use initiative and you'll suss it out

 

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bertracoon1616

Member

• Jan 7, 2012

• #5

Hey guys

Big development, just tried to take it for a drive and it started fine but as i was pulling out the drive it stalled and now wont start.

Turned it over in the dark and the coil is arcing constantly. So f**k all power getting to the dizzy then!

Cheers for the ideas, didnt realise a bad plug/lead/ dizzy cap could cause a problem like this. Ill get on it big time tomoz.

Many thanks

Ally

 

3.5 efi

Well-Known Member

• Jan 7, 2012

• #6

check lead fit in cap

 

jamesmartin

Well-Known Member

• Jan 7, 2012

• #7

it will be either the spark escaping because it can ,something interupting insulation or because spark has nowhere to go ie carbon brush gone ,rotor arm,or king lead broke down ,plugs etc

 

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bertracoon1616

Member

• Jan 7, 2012

• #8

Cheers Will do.

Great advice guys

Really useful

 

Mr Noisy

Coming in your ears.

• Jan 7, 2012

• #9

Just give it a full strip and refit tomorrow mate. Pop to Halfords and get a set of plugs, NGK BPR6ES or equivalent. If its not had plugs in for a while it'll need some so might aswell do it.

Then check all the leads with a multimeter, see if there's any with high resistance. Clean up the contacts in the dizzy and clean the rotor arm, and go from there

Also read this! Just had a load of problems myself!

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f42/ok-so-i-fixed-leak-now-misfires-173546.html

Good luck tomorrow

 

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bertracoon1616

Member

• Jan 9, 2012

• #10

Right, managed to fix it. Was a number of things.

Checked the dizzy cap and the connection to plug 1 was correded to **** so swapped out the dizzy cap for another one i had kicking about, put a new rotor arm in aswell as the old one just looked a bit old, still wouldnt start, checked all the leads and found, No 1 fell apart in my hands and 4 others were perished and craked so replaced all of them, started but sounded a bit ropey, bought a full set of new plugs and found 3 different varietys of the old ones! Fitted the new plugs, soretd out all the leads gave it a spin and hey presto!! One roaring V8. Messed about with the timing a bit and advanced it about 5 degrees and its a whole new animal!!

Thanks for all the advice from everyone

Ally

 

jamesmartin

Well-Known Member

• Jan 9, 2012

• #11

pleased for you , v8 electrics need to be good ,its goood practice to fit new rotor arm ,cap,leads including king lead ,plugs in one go if anything needs changing including dizzy if possible

 

Mr Noisy

Coming in your ears.

• Jan 9, 2012

• #12

Result!

I just fixed my poorly v8 with a new set of plugs and a cleaned up lead fitting.

I checked EVERYTHING on the EFi system first, and it turned out to be simple stuff.

It's easy to overlook the easy bits!