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Odd Sparking Problem

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 8:27 am
by BI8759
Has anyone come across this before? I replaced my dizzy with an electronic one (yeah, I know what people are going to say) and it was fine but the car then started to run worse and worse until it packed up.

On investigating, there is a no spark - unless you unclip the distributor cap and separate it a wee bit and then the plugs will spark. Put the cap back on and the spark disappears. I thought it must be the little spring loaded carbon thing in the top of the cap so have replaced by degrees the cap, the rotor and the leads but still get the same result - the car will only run if the distributor cap is not clipped shut. Doesn't make sense to me so does anyone else have experience of this please?

Re: Odd Sparking Problem

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 9:13 am
by MarkyB
Never seen that one!
Did you replace the rotor arm at the same time?
The type that are held together with a type of rivet are quite failure prone.

Re: Odd Sparking Problem

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 9:24 am
by bmcecosse
That is a mystery! Ask the supplier of the dizzy?

Re: Odd Sparking Problem

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 3:28 pm
by katy
You may have to run resistor plugs w/that.

Re: Odd Sparking Problem

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 6:09 pm
by aupickup
who was the supplier and what make

Re: Odd Sparking Problem

Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2013 7:42 pm
by dalebrignall
have you got a red rotor arm they sometimes have a bit of a burr on the inside cheak to see if its fully home give it a thump with your hand and see if it goes on a bit further i had this problem recentley .

Re: Odd Sparking Problem

Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 4:06 pm
by BI8759
Thanks for the replies. I bought the dizzy from a well-known supplier on Ebay; yes, dale it has the red rotor arm. I've tried it with three different arms that I know work, a new cap, new leads all without success. Asked the seller about it who wasn't very helpful other than telling me that it's probably an earthing problem.

I think I'll go back to an old school dizzy with a spare capacitor and set of points in the glove box.

Re: Odd Sparking Problem

Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 4:44 pm
by aupickup
demand money back

Re: Odd Sparking Problem

Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 5:22 pm
by mike.perry
BI8759 wrote: I think I'll go back to an old school dizzy with a spare capacitor and set of points in the glove box.
You know it makes sense :roll:

Re: Odd Sparking Problem

Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2013 5:29 pm
by lambrettalad
what awful customer service ,please pm me with details please,also is it shorting on the dizzy body thanks to a small spilt in the lead (s)?

Re: Odd Sparking Problem

Posted: Thu Jul 25, 2013 4:01 pm
by katy
Have you tries a set of resistor plugs, as I previously suggested?