Ignition failure after VIN plate welding to chassis
Discussion
Help, and thank you in advance for your advice!
I have an ignition failure on my non-IVA'ed Robin Hood Exmo kit car - derived from a donor petrol Ford Sierra Ghia 1.6l from 1984.
The car has run OK in my garage for about 2 years and I was finally ready to submit it for an IVA Test. I had not run it at all over the winter 2019/20 and then after lockdown it was ready to go. I submitted my Test Application yesterday and thought it wise to check that all was well on the car. The ignition has completely failed - no sparks at the cylinders or distributor HT output. I will try and see if the low voltage supply is OK shortly. I had not run it for more than 6 months.
But - I have since found buried in my Haynes Ford Sierra manual this statement - "When carrying out welding operations on the vehicle using electric welding equipment, the battery and alternator should be disconnected."
Two days back I did weld the DVLA required new steel VIN Plate to the car chassis using a MIG welder. The battery was not connected but I did not disconnect the alternator. Do you think this has damaged the Bosch Inductive Discharge System which includes a basic "electronic switching / amplifier module".
Also, the starter selection on the steering column ignition switch is now operating at an early position, and not waiting until the spring loading position is taken up. Another wiring problem?
All the car fuses are OK.
Can anyone offer advice as how to proceed? Can I test the electronic module? What else should I test? Thanks in advice for your thought and input.
I have an ignition failure on my non-IVA'ed Robin Hood Exmo kit car - derived from a donor petrol Ford Sierra Ghia 1.6l from 1984.
The car has run OK in my garage for about 2 years and I was finally ready to submit it for an IVA Test. I had not run it at all over the winter 2019/20 and then after lockdown it was ready to go. I submitted my Test Application yesterday and thought it wise to check that all was well on the car. The ignition has completely failed - no sparks at the cylinders or distributor HT output. I will try and see if the low voltage supply is OK shortly. I had not run it for more than 6 months.
But - I have since found buried in my Haynes Ford Sierra manual this statement - "When carrying out welding operations on the vehicle using electric welding equipment, the battery and alternator should be disconnected."
Two days back I did weld the DVLA required new steel VIN Plate to the car chassis using a MIG welder. The battery was not connected but I did not disconnect the alternator. Do you think this has damaged the Bosch Inductive Discharge System which includes a basic "electronic switching / amplifier module".
Also, the starter selection on the steering column ignition switch is now operating at an early position, and not waiting until the spring loading position is taken up. Another wiring problem?
All the car fuses are OK.
Can anyone offer advice as how to proceed? Can I test the electronic module? What else should I test? Thanks in advice for your thought and input.
If you had welding done with the battery connected this could potentially have damaged any electronics on the car, including the ignition system. But check the more obvious causes before you jump to that conclusion. It should be very easy to test the switched ignition supply to the ignition system to determine whether the problem is in the ignition system, or the supply to it. I wonder whether the ignition switch itself may be faulty/miss-wired since you have two problems related to the switched ignition and cranking output from the switch.
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