Ignition - or not...
Entry posted by Wagoneer
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Well, the time had come to try and start it. Tuesday just gone my neighbour and I set to and checked all the connections, put some fuel in the tank and cranked it over a few times with the coil disconnected.
No spark. Diddly. Not even a twinkle. A quick look at the points revealed verdigris normally reserved for 14th century Venetian chapels. Oh, and the rotor arm was slacker than a politician at a trouser press convention. After a few minutes of cursing we packed up.
I very nearly went out on Wednesday to buy new points, condenser, coil, ignition leads, rotor arm etc, but a quick google showed me that the world has moved on somewhat. Electronics are the thing! So, further research led me to order a new distributor, high power coil, leads and some other twiddly bits that will see me with much better ignition. Photos to follow as soon as the stuff arrives.
Not wanting to waste a day where the rest of my family had left me for the dizzy heights of Alton Towers, after work I popped some high density foam behind the driver's seat back to get me nearer the pedals. Perfect.
The I stripped the old coil away.
The connections are (like all the wiring) not as good as they could be and the main HT lead to the distributor was a bit bent with the fitting in the coil having been damaged too.
Also, there was this thing which I think might be a ballast resistor.
I'm assuming that this all goes in the bin when the new distributor and electronics gets installed. Overall, the wiring needs attention. Most of it looks a bit like this:
Here's where I have an advantage. My job is a jolly interesting one. I'm actually a graphic artist which you might think has sod all to do with kit cars and wiring but bear with, bear with.
The company that I work for is the world leader in camera monitor systems and reversing alarms for commercial vehicles. My job entails designing exhibition stands, promotional models and anything that can better demonstrate our product. That's included designing and then building a full size demo vehicle based on a Renault Maxity. Being a handy sort I also do all of the product installations for exhibitions so I have been fortunate in learning a fair bit about making 12V looms etc. As back-up I have some great colleagues who have excellent vehicle knowledge and can fit anything to anything.
This Westfield therefore, whilst not a cake-walk will certainly not be too hard to bring back to life.
I did a bit more after tinkering with the coil but let's save that for the next entry.
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