Intermittent Ignition Failure

[Staggard]

The other thing that occurs to me is, if you are involved an accident and the car catches fire your pretty done for anyway, cutting the fuel pump wont put out the fire and the speed that the fire spreads pretty much is going to write the car off anyway by the time the fire brigade could arrive.

[marcusclive]

I had this with mine last week, we took it to Scotland and just before Glasgow the ignition kept cutting out and would re. Start immediately. After it did this a few times I had it recovered back to Sussex and continued in a hire vehicle. I think it's the accu spark unit breaking down but want to prove it before changing the unit. I just left it running for 1 1/2 hours and no problem so I don't want to swap unless I can make it pack up. I will try again tomorrow leaving it running at work for a few hours and see what happens.
marcus

[V Mad]

Thanks V Mad. Isn't the black cable the earthing wire? It goes to the -ve terminal on the coil. The red power lead is connected to a white wire that comes from the feed to the inertia switch. It has been like this since I bought it 3 years ago and up until recently it ran fine. Is there something about this setup that you think might be causing it to misbehave after all that time?

Steve, the black wire is as you say connected to the coil -ve not earth. On the original points there is an earth wire that connects the upper basplate to the lower baseplate. This ensures that the coil current can get to earth reliably. The same applies to the electronic ignition, you need an earth wire to make sure it is reliable.

[big lad]

Marcus,
the unit I had was a accuspark unit and like I said in my post , after the fist time it did it ,it ran fine for about a month, and then packed in total.
I got a new unit from accuspark, and fitted that and all was well, but I now have a spare new unit in the boot, just in case!!!!

regards

Tony

[KOY 23]

I had this with mine last week, we took it to Scotland and just before Glasgow the ignition kept cutting out and would re. Start immediately. After it did this a few times I had it recovered back to Sussex and continued in a hire vehicle. I think it's the accu spark unit breaking down but want to prove it before changing the unit. I just left it running for 1 1/2 hours and no problem so I don't want to swap unless I can make it pack up. I will try again tomorrow leaving it running at work for a few hours and see what happens.
marcus

Maybe accuspark should promote that their device saves you 50% of fuel!

[Staggard]

Marcus,
the unit I had was a accuspark unit and like I said in my post , after the fist time it did it ,it ran fine for about a month, and then packed in total.
I got a new unit from accuspark, and fitted that and all was well, but I now have a spare new unit in the boot, just in case!!!!

regards

Tony

Sorry Tony I don't want to be rude but someone would have to explain the logic. If I had a unit that let me down ( which I did ) I would be looking for a more reliable unit ( I took advice from some of the guys on here) and then to buy two of them which probably worked out dearer than buying one good one. Perhaps we should set up a poll to find out the most reliable unit ( although there would have to be complete honesty as I know there are a few with an axe to grind on this one. For example list the popular makes and get people to tick the ones that they have had trouble with. Just a thought.

[big lad]

After getting in touch with them , they assured me it was a one off, and sent me a replacement, after having it fitted for near a year and all was well , seen another unit for sale at a good price , so bought it as back up.

cheers

Tony

[Stagless Steve]

Reading Steve's post he has said that he has the ignition connected to the feed TO the inertia switch not FROM the switch, so it wont cut the ignition if the switch fails.

I had another look at the wiring last night and guess what, it's wired to the output side of the inertia switch, not the input after all! I read something that said the contacts inside the inertia switch can become dirty and it advised to lift the plunger, turn it a bit and then move it up and down a few times to help clean the contacts. I did that on Sunday just in case and it was after that that the car restarted. I didn't make the link because I thought the ignition was wired to the input side. I wonder if the inertia switch is the problem after all. I will rewire to the input side I think and see how it goes (with fingers etc. crossed).

[wilf]

As I alluded to in post#3, many electrical problems are "mechanical".

Good to see that you possibly have a no-cost fix.

[Stagless Steve]

I replaced the electronic ignition module at the weekend and (fingers crossed) that seems to have done the trick. I did a 30 mile run and it didn't miss a beat. Wohoo!

Steve