Hey everyone.

As some of you may know i am having some ignition issues with my van.
Im unaable to get a spark.
minitopia scott came round today to have a look. Many thanks to him for coming round and having a look and narrowing down the problem.

So what i know is:
-Im not getting spark at the plugs
-I have power to the coil showing on the POS and the NEG but its not coming through to the dizzy.
We tried three dizzy's and still no luck. Two have previously been functioning.
One is a standard Lucas diz, on is a 59d with ECU and the other the original pulsar dizzy.
- I have replaced the coil as well and both coils do the same.
-Worried that not enough power was getting through so hooked it up to jumper leads on a running car.

ENGINE SPEC
a+ 1275 motor that was running until a few weeks ago.
Any suggestions would be great.

coil lead broken ??
broken wire ????

Just spoken to someone to bounce ideas off . . . does your van require the tacho to be connected for the engine to run?
What is possibly happening is the voltage to the coil is above 12v and not switching the voltage below 12v (low tension side/neg) possibly due to an open circuit (not switching on/off) in the tacho.

Check wires at back of tacho if ok.

Try . . .
disconnect white wire with black trace and check for spark, if it sparks there is a problem with the tacho but in saying this I am unsure if your car needs the wire from the tacho connected for engine to run

disconnect wires from neg side of coil only, fit a wire to neg side of coil with exposed end of wire, turn ignition on put exposed wire close to earth and see if sparks, if it does coil ok and there is a problem further in the wiring from when it was shorted.

Checked tyre pressures found ok
Checked door hinges found operating as required
Checked if right elbows operated as required
Checked spark plugs fitted to engine, found fitted in correct position
Checked for fuel . . . all good

_________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDMkVq1jRGU

Hmm..tried three Dizzies and two coils no change

Ht lead from Coil to Dizzy
Wires from Coil to Dizzy
IGN Light could be blown...is it on before you try and start

_________________
Stop Licking the Dog...I Don't Care Who Started It

Tried two sets of leads
Tried different wires from coil to dizzy
Light is shining a bright disapproving orange.

Trying what scott said above. Will let you all know.

Make it simple. Disconnect every other wire from the coil.
Just keep one with power and one direct to the dizzy.

Morris - its not points so did the red and the black to dizz and power. Still no mojo jojo.

Why not?

Check the Earth strap to the Clutch Wok

_________________
Stop Licking the Dog...I Don't Care Who Started It

If I knew that I would be a happier man and wouldn't have marks on my head from all the head scratching




Is good and tight.

In theory you should be able to bench test a dizzy by hooking up the wires to a power supply and spin the dizzy by hand to see if it sparks. (you need to add earth wires to the dizzy and spark plugs)

Some more info i should have mentioned.

Engine is a 1275 a+
The PO built it and it has:
Gemini Starter motor
High powered Alt ( think its from a commodore)
pulsar dizzy
Has after market Gauges and a weber carb.

Not sure if this helps at all but i know that some of these mods do weird things. EG when you unplug the ignition light nothing works as the alternator needs this.... The light is plugged in.

yeah but, no but, yeah but, no but

Floss,,, as morris1100 says, you should be able to seperate all other electrical items from the system & symply test the coil & dizzy on their own

if you have no spark at the plaugs, then work backwards till you find some

alternatively, if you have spark coming from the coil then work forwards till you find where it stops

you can use a seperate battery, hooked up to the coil + terminal, & a seperate earth to the body of the dizzy from that same battery

then open points or turn the pulsar dizzy & you should have spark comming out of the coil,,, if you don`t then either the coil is buggered or the dizzy has an issue

try one change at a time tho,,, if you have "Known" quantities,,, as in if you have a dizzy that works on another car , then use it,,, if you have a coil that works on another car then use it,,,, if they don`t work then you have a power "feed" problem to the coil or an earth problem

you can test the pulsar dizzy with a multi meter, spin it up & watch the meter work

_________________
No offence intended here but--> anyone writing a book about minis 30 years ago may not have experienced such worn or stuffed-with components as we are finding these days.

You should put your heart & soul into everything you do.

Did it start with the second battery. Maybe your battery is on it's way out and doesn't have enough kick in it. Check your battery leads running under the car for shorts. Is the solenoid working properly. Work your way through from the battery through to the dizzy.

_________________
Aussie Leyland, Aussie Factory, Aussie Mini S.

Hey Miniman,
Its true what you say and logical. I thought it was the dizzy to start with so got another one to test it against. This one doesn't work either and neither did the one leant to me by scott. The coil is powering up so the problem should be the dizzy. I have called around and will get the dizzy looked at on Monday. That way i will know 100% what works and what doesn't. If it still doesn't work once the dizzy is 100% then I will possibly cry If three out of three dizzy's tested are stuffed I must have the worst luck ever

Drex
We hooked tried three different batteries and even gave it an extra boot with jumper leads. no good. I have tested and im getting 11.8 or there abouts at the coil and at the solenoid so i think that is all good.

Thanks for everyones input and I will let you all know in the new year what happened