This is prompted by my recent post about electronic ignition failures.
Is there available, or could it be invented, ‘something’ that monitors for the driver’s benefit, the quality of the HT pulses getting in or out of the distributor? This would need to not have any effect on the spark itself so first thought is some sort of inductive pick up around an HT lead. Quite what it measures and how it’s displayed and interpreted has yet to be decided of course! But the idea is to alert the driver that a fault is developing and that this ignition and not fuel.
Stupid, or what?
Paul
An onboard oscilloscope. I could have used one last year when I was trying to diagnose a coil that wasn’t completely dead, just mostly dead. It would light up the inline spark tester light, but would not fire the engine.
Rob
Are you sure it was mostly dead? It may have just been resting or asleep, or actually an ex-coil.
For all the complaints about Lucas ign, in 40 years the only time it has let me down it was actually the Eklin { Ford] condenser that failed. I suspect those ‘ye olde’ yello and black plug leads that seemed to be 'favoured for a ‘vintage look’ would cause problems on cars where the leads are subject to a lot of heat , like , oh say, J****rs
I changed coil and dizzy (again), this time by the side of the road in 30min, after repeated spark issues. The original '69 (re-instated) coil now being the prime suspect…a previous coil also tested weak
A Hantech (and other brands) are specialised auto oscilliscopes that are know around the US $200 mark
Not only good ignition work, godsend for sensor issues on later model vehicles, as they can test a sensor with a user friendly pre-programmed waveform that helps the user know if its in range
I want one !
my older model Jeep has been giving some engine symptoms for a while…I got lucky and a spare coil rectified it, guys chase their tails replacing various $ensors