Nova Electronic ignition in a Viva??

[1256man]

hello an early micra dizzy is a straight fit even the coil fittings are the same as long as its a 12 volt feed the only problem with this is you have to have your sump off to alter the dizzy drive to suit the micras as you cant quite get the timming unless you move the oilpump dizzy drive a couple of cogs as the vacumm advance fouls trhe block i use a modified early fiesta/escort ohv dizzy ive been using them for years now no problems but the conversion is more involved you can even fit a mini electronic dizzy ive tried a few. basically you take off the original drive usually a cog andshorten if needs be the shaft to suit then after deciding where to grind your new offset or central slot all you have to do is saw a groove around the shaft for a circlip to control vertical movement your there, just the wiring to sort out which you would take of the donor car and of course making sure you get a 12 volt feed to it fuse protected

[sportston]

thanks thats most interesting and informative. I was just wondering though.. why take the sump off and move the drive around? Couldn't you just move all the plug leads around one space and re-adjust the timing?
thanks tom

[1256man]

no you cant as there isnt enough movement to get the timming right ive tried it in the past and the engine would start and run but its not good enough for driving ive seen it working in a friends car so it has been proven as ive said if your a bit more adventurous you could fit the fiesta/escort but the parts are harder to find now in the scrapyards

[sportston]

Ok thats very useful to know thanks.
What type would you say has the best performance? I know different ignition systems have slightly different ignition advance curves. Would you say that a ford ohv escort or fiesta dizzy gives better performance than the A series or micra?
thanks for your input
tom

[sportston]

Had a good look on ebay. Any idea what type of mini dizzy fits?

[1256man]

as far as im aware it has to be of an a series engine mine came out of an maestro and worked well the ignition amplifier was seperate to the dizzy body so if you tried it you may not have the travel to get the timming right on the escort fiesta one you only have a small margin of error as the vacum advance and amplifier are both on the dizzy body but once fitted you will not have any ignition problems i ran 29000 in my other car before it got written off with out changing a thing once set up regards dave

[sportston]

Ah smashing, that narrows it down.
If its off a Maestro I'm fairly sure that will make it an A+ series engine, its only a slightly bit different than the older A series engine, but I've been told the dizzy's have a different fitting on A+ than the A series.
I'll see what turns up cheap on ebay then.
Thanks for your help and advice. I'll post up my results and stuff when I get round to doing it. At the moment my priority is getting it MOT'd next week and convert a few little bits like dizzy and rear windows later. I plan on making the rear side windows to openable flip out style (its a 2-door).
cheerio for now
Tom

[sportston]

Ok I did what you said and it all works now. I fitted a Bosch Fiesta/Escort unit. I hope you don't mind, I am going to make a fresh post with instructions on how to do this. I'll pinch a few of your bits and add a few of mine. Thanks for all your advice. I couldn't have done it without you.
Many Thanks
Tom