lumenition optronic ignition

[sammy]

auto electrician told me that the black box was faulty (all so did the test to confirm that it was faulty) but the new box has arrived and still no spark can anyone help me should i cut my loses and install points have only had the car 1 week and only driven it once. the westie is 1700xflow

[Blatman]

Time to break out the multi tester...

Make sure you are actually getting some voltage to the black box from (IIRC) the coil. If you have 12 volts from the low tension side of the coil arriving at the black box, get back to us. If not, the coil may be knackered.

And check all the earths ...

Don't give up, and don't go back to points... ever...

[sammy]

tested coil and also put new coil on    

[Blatman]

And you have 12 volts at the black box?

And just for my peace of mind, what tests did your auto electrician carry out before he pronounced the black box dead?

[sammy]

spoken to lumenition they then told him how to trace the fault to which part, buy liking out blue & black on the cable from the black box. then buy puting the ht lead to earth you should get a spark if not then it would be the black box that was faulty     ( still getting the some result with the new one)

[sammy]

not liking   should of said linking

[chazpowerslide]

The optronic "eye" in the distributer is connected to the black box via a white three terminal multi plug.

As you have replaced the black box the terminals in that side of the multi plug should be new and un-corroded.

The other part of the multi plug connected to the oprtonic "eye" in the dizzy is older and the terminals in that side of the multi plug may possibly be corroded.

These terminals need to be spotlessly clean and un-corroded so the electrical connections are as good as they can be as the voltages/ampers involved are small and the resistance from a poor connection will wipe them out and thus signals from the "eye" to the black box along with them.

You should be able to clean and then pinch up each female terminal (in one side of the plug) so the male terminals (in the other side of the plug) have a tighter fit and thus a better electrical connection, lubricate the multi plug with copper slip on re-assembley to help stop corrosion setting in again.

Older Luminition optronic systems are a bit prone to corroded terminals in the multi plugs, it's worth checking.

Chaz.

[chazpowerslide]

Must type faster....................

Chaz.

[sammy]

optical switch is only 2 years old  would it be possible to bypass the system some how, ie send the 12v straight to the optical eye

[chazpowerslide]

Is the new/old coil balsted or un-balasted Sammy?

You will have a white wire (switched positive from the ignition switch) feeding the black box IRRC red wire.

If you have no power at this wire during cranking or the run positions you probhably have an ignition switch fault.

Connect your multimeter/test light to the white wire and earth and turn the ignition on, you should get 12 Volts in the run/cranking positions, no juice = no power to the black box.

HTH

Chaz

[chazpowerslide]

12 volts will kill the eye...........................

Check the feed (switched positive white wire) and the earth (black wire) to the black box first, you need to establish if it's powered up or not.

Chaz.

[sammy]

not sure if ballast our not ,but have two 12v wires when ig is turned on at the coil

[sammy]

could i take 12v from the bat to the coil would it turn over then

[chazpowerslide]

Ok.

Can you tell me the colours of the wires on the black box and where they go (exclude the ones going to the multi plug) and the colour of the wires you have at the coil.

The coil + should be powered from the ignition switched white wire + as should the black box.

You can run a positive from the battery + to coil + and black box feed wire, if it starts then it's a fair bet the ignition switch is faulty

As you have two white feed wires to the coil so it's a fair bet that the coil is un balasted and you will have a seperate balast resistor in line on the switched white wire (this may be a piece of high resistance wire spliced in or a metal/ceramic resistor between the ignition switch and coil.

This means that in the run position on the ignition switch the coil is is fed with a "balasted" 9 volt supply.

The black box needs to be connected in before the resistor, ie between the ignition switch and the resistor, it it's connected in after it will only "see" the 9 volts the coil sees (it's needs 12 volts)

Whan cranking a direct 12V is fed into the coil via the back of the starter solenoid and the 9V balasted feed is switched off (The second white wire will run from the back of the starter solenoid to the + side of the coil)

If there is a brake in this wire the coil will have no feed on cranking and hence no spark.

Check out all of the above step by step and see how you go.

Chaz.

Edited to say;

As was running before the fault developed it may well be wired correctly check the feeds and earths, the fault sounds like it's in the un-balasted 12v feed, the switched 12 volt feed.

Another way to check the system is to pop off the dizzy cap and rotor arm and remove the chopper from the dizzy shaft and put the rotor arm back on, turn on the ignition.

Remove the king lead from the dizzy cap and hold it about 5-10mm above the top of the rotor arm whilst moving a piece of thin card in and out of the eye.

If all is well you'll get a fat spark jump from the king lead to the top of the rotor arm.

Be very carefull, there's a lot of volts involved...........

Chaz.

[sammy]

thanks for the help i will try going through it all again tomorrow thanks again ( bad start to my westie days hope it will only get better)