Is there a way of testing a electronic ignition unit ?. Dropped the van at my Mums the weekend. It was juddering along more so when you wanted to go faster. As I approached her house it died. Did a large backfire and carried on. As I had spares I swapped coil, and complete dizzy with clamp, points all pre fitted. My gut thinks ignition unit failed / failing. Can it be tested ? Ta
Don't think so. Top tip -change one thing at a time if you want to narrow down a fault by swapping bits out, but you know that! But yes, random misfiring. The first one I came across misfired worse and worse until barely running, then it would work for 10 seconds quite well, then worse - and repeat - pretty random. It would actually run fine for the first few minutes, just long enough that you thought all was well until you got 1/2 mile down the road.
I know,1 thing at a time, if it had been here I might of, as it wasnt just took the parts to swap the lot ha ha
Its either a loose wire or a gently roasted modern electronic unit. I dissected an original Petronix Ignitor from 11 years ago the other day, its literally just a Hall sensor turning on and off a really big transistor (almost half the size of the module ) to replace the points. Later model units bring in adaptive dwell and the shutoff when pulses stop. I think its the shutoff circuit starting to fail at higher RPM after a few years of cooking. So the ignition turns off and on again.
Thanks Mike, I will probably swap the rotor arm and coil, see if they are ok as they are 2 minute swap, Know if I should bin or keep. Not much else otherwise !!
The electronic ignition modules go flaky rather than fail. If they failed totally it'd be easier to fault find. Mike's idea of having 2nd dissy clamp already clamped to your spare dissy, with it strobed in the right position, makes for an easy swap over.
Well, I went to move it yesterday, started and stopped, similar to before, started fine then instant stop. I swapped distributor for another points one leaving the Beru cap in place, Nothing. The old electronic ignition was slung on the floor in the corner where I threw it in disgust. I put it back in. The only thing I didnt change in the past was the cap. Put dissy with old Electronic back in, different cap, started on the button.
If it comes to a dead stop, v. likely that the module has expired. A bad cap would give you some kind of spark-age.
Sound In all the years of bimbling along I've only had maybe 3 caps , 3 rotor arms and a set of leads . No breakdowns, just an annoying stutter/misfire which disappeared when i swapped the module... Now running a Lumenition which is blummin good *** ***hugs tree Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
Pamps, had an'old' Sparkrite piggy back unit from the 80's, with a switch so either electronic or points. Pulled van out of it's hidy hole a week ago, and it just died, blocking all the cars in. Had a thought and switched it to points, and bingo, switched it back...cut out. it's now in the bin.
Pity, its usually two solder joints. A capacitor vibrates loose. Had one on my mothers Mini back in the 70s. Fixed it a couple of times..
