No spark on 1800 viva!

[dann01]

This may sound like a daft question, but is there a gap at the points?

And when you put the dizzy back in, did you static time it?

Obvious, and you may have checked, but I have done silly things like this in the past, naturally assuming that they were right, when haypresto, points opening between contacts on the dizzy, and guess what... No spark.

Dan

[Retro morgs]

Yeh,we went through all thst a few times just to make sure!! Was wondering if anything could earth out and cause damage if the wires that go to the coil touched whilst the battery was still connected?

[dann01]

Dizzy points wire connected to neg side of coil?

Dan

[Retro morgs]

Yep!

[Vivanuts Glenn]

is there any power getting to the positive side of the coil???

[dann01]

Have remembered something from a while back. This is gonna sound daft, but check that the arm on the points still has a nylon bush at the pivot... Once had all that you discribe, and eventually replace the points only to find it worked fine... The only thing wrong with the old ones were that the nylon bush had lost it's flat at the bottom of the post.

Does that make sense?

Dan

[Retro morgs]

Yeh that's there,it's now got new points in it as a matter of course. The car is now in the hands of a mechanic (old school mechanic!) who is giving it a shakedown to get to the bottom of the problem! Suggestions still very welcome though!

[dann01]

If he finds the fault, let us all know what it is... Handy to add to the list of stuff to go wrong.

Dan

[Retro morgs]

Of course! I wouldnt want anybody else having to go through this bloody nightmare!

[firenza2000sl]

When checking ignition problems I used an old-fashioned AVO-type multimeter. NOT a digital display, but a moving-coil pointer and a 1.5V battery to power the ohms (resistance) ranges. Excellent for measuring ignition lead continuity, and points resistance when closed, which of course should be very near zero.

Even better is an ignition analyser. I bought mine as a kit from Heathkit in Tottenham Court Road just before they closed down. This is a mini-Krypton/Sun oscilloscope with special leads connected to the coil and high-tension circuits. Spark patterns are displayed on-screen, and the handbook has a helpful set of illustrations that identify causes of problems.

I think a company called Pico sold something functionally equivalent that uses a PC to display the ignition trace- does anybody have one?

Just my 2 cents worth...