Welly Jen Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Mr Toad disgraced himself today. Was out taking the long way home after some shopping . Car was working well, when suddenly the engine just died . Middle of nowhere, step hill, by a hairpin bend. Fortunately, I was able to get it to the side of the road out of the way. I walked to the nearest farm to find out where I was and to get high enough to have a mobile signal. An hour later the RAC man arrives. Between us we diagnose that it is probably the Ford EDIS unit, driving the coilpack that is goosed, with a lower probability of something wrong with the Microsquirt. Another half hour and the recovery truck arrives for the ignominious trip home. First time with the Westfield that a problem hasn't been fixable out in the wilds. I'll get the laptop hooked up to the microsquirt later and see what that says. EDIS units are getting harder to find and are all around twenty or more years old now, so I may well go for a more modern ignition driver if that is the problem. Could be worse. At least it was a nice warm day. Jen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Oh no, what a pain. Out of interest, do the micro/mega ranges have an all in one unit nowadays that doesn't need an Edis unit? That was always one of those things that put me off a little in the earlier days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welly Jen Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 Oh no, what a pain. Out of interest, do the micro/mega ranges have an all in one unit nowadays that doesn't need an Edis unit? That was always one of those things that put me off a little in the earlier days. Hi Dave, I don't know about the latest ones. I've a V2 microsquirt and they are on at least V3 now. Am a bit out of touch. The microsquirt is very small. The PCB is about the size of a credit card, so squeezing in some more power electronics might be a challange for the designers. Jen Edited to add: I've just been doing some reading up and reminding myself what I did when I installed the system. Microsquirt V2 is supposed to be able to drive a twin coil wasted spark setup directly. I tried doing this, but never managed to get it to work properly, so ended up reinstalling the EDIS from the Megajolt days. Even the microsquirt manual says it is hard to get to work reliably. The high currents, voltages and electrical noise inside the small microsquirt case tend to cause problems, so it recommends using an external ignition driver of some sort and fire it with 5V logic from the microsquirt. This can be an EDIS, or some other driver. I've been looking at EDIS units on Ebay. An auction ending this evening... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6carjon Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Oh dear, I get great value from the aa and as my car is yellow it matches the car and looks like my race transporter ! Get a yellow one and join the aa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welly Jen Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 Oh dear, I get great value from the aa and as my car is yellow it matches the car and looks like my race transporter ! Get a yellow one and join the aa. I'm currently with the RAC, so I'll get Mr Toad sprayed orange. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALLADDIN Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 if you disconnect ms from the edis unit then the edis will go into limp mode (fixed 10deg) and still run engine, useful to prove if edis or ms. or crank sensor ? edis is v.reliable by all accounts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welly Jen Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 if you disconnect ms from the edis unit then the edis will go into limp mode (fixed 10deg) and still run engine, useful to prove if edis or ms. or crank sensor ? edis is v.reliable by all accounts. That's exactly what we tried by the side of the road. There is a plug and socket that lets me disconnect the SAW signal from the microsquirt and let the EDIS run the sparks on its own in limp home mode. Interesting thing. No sparks with SAW connected. Disconnecting SAW and you get a couple of sparks as you start cranking, then nothing. We could repeat this at will. The crank sensor goes to the EDIS, then to the microsquirt via the PIP wire. The microsquirt was seeing a crank signal as it was turning on the fuel pump when the engine was turning over. It was also supplying fuel to the injectors as the plugs were getting wet. This is what lead the RAC guy and I to suspect the EDIS first, with a lower probablity to the microsquirt. More investigation later. Connecting the laptop to the microsquirt should show me the cranking signal and the various sensor inputs when cranking. Jen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALLADDIN Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 sounds like you have it covered if you get completely stuck i have a spare edis i could loan you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welly Jen Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 sounds like you have it covered if you get completely stuck i have a spare edis i could loan you Cheers for the offer. I'll let you know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meakin Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Hi I fitted a no diz from http://motorsport-electronics.co.uk/index.php/products/engine-management-systems.html Absolutely brilliant no edis all new it simply plugs straight to the coil. Comes with an app to give you a digital dash and you connect to it via blue tooth to your laptop to tune. Hope that helps Paul Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welly Jen Posted March 31, 2014 Author Share Posted March 31, 2014 Well that was easy and cheap to fix. It was the Edis, but not in the way I'd thought. Had some time this morning to take a look at the car. Tried it to see if the car fairies had magically fixed it overnight, but no joy. Connected the laptop and checked that the microsquirt and its sensors were working. Span the engine over on the starter and the laptop showed a crank signal coming through. I then pulled off the EDIS plug and noticed a bit of corrosion in one of the terminals. A quick squirt of contralube in everything and I reconnected it. Turned the key and VROOM :yes: . Just for good measure I contralubed all the other connections on the ECU drop down panel under the dash. It is something that had been on the "to do" list for a while. The road that I was on is between Strines and Midhopestones, just outside Sheffield. It is picturesque, but extraordinarily bumpy in a Westfield. I think the tarmac is just spread in a thin layer over the rocks of the original track. Reckon the vibration must have disturbed one or more important connection in the plug/socket interface. Good to go again! Jen (A good job I didn't win the EDIS auction on Ebay last night!) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norman Verona Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 Jen, That's near were I used to live. Great blatting but slowly as the roads are so uneven. Just a little fact that I learnt in our 14 years in Bradfield. Go past Strine pub and as you turn the corner to go down the hill there's a large stone pillar at the side of the road. There's another at the bottom. They are the "take-off" stones. The strines road is called Mortimer Road, after the chap who built it. It went from Halifax to Derbyshire. It was for transportation of the wool from Derbyshire to the mills in Halifax and was a private toll road. The chap spent all his money building it only to find the government nationalised it when he had finished. He ended up penniless. The "take-off" stones were where the wagons would have extra horses put on to get them up the hills. OK, end of the history lesson, glad the car's sorted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welly Jen Posted March 31, 2014 Author Share Posted March 31, 2014 Hi Norman, This is why you should be posting. Educational and informative! Fascinating story. I'd gathered from the farmer that it was called Mortimer Road and was wondering where the name came from. I could see it carrying over a crossroads with the A619, so that is obviously heading towards Halifax. Jen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norman Verona Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 Jen, I probably know the farmer. He'll be a Haig or a Shephard, everyone's related to everyone in the area Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welly Jen Posted March 31, 2014 Author Share Posted March 31, 2014 Jen, I probably know the farmer. He'll be a Haig or a Shephard, everyone's related to everyone in the area Garlic House Farm? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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