Aarghh Dancing Tacho and weird symptoms again
Discussion
Let me tell youa Story, Had a weird dancing tacho problem, thought i had traced and fixed :-) many thanks for all the advice on the previous thread.
However, driving home in the sun out roof down, sunnies on GREAT then stopping at a junction the engine cuts out, Girl in car behind laughs and says its my own fault for having such a cool car. After loads of faffing find the coil lead has come off the dizzy cap. pop it back on and then we're off again.
Now tacho dances and the high idle is back. as an experiment if i leave the coil to dizzy cap lead loose the problems go away, but not a very permanent solution. Got a bit confused so washed the car, but that didn't help but did make it look pretty.
PLEASE does anyone have any idea what is going on and where i should look next?
>> Edited by pete1 on Tuesday 24th May 13:54
What about just changing the king lead, perhaps when fully home the connector/carbon is breakng up.
What about the inside of the coil, the femail connector, rub the inside with some fine emery perhaps when fully home its sittng on a poor surface and arcing
.
The fact that you can make it stop says to me it must be in this area somewhere.
H
What about the inside of the coil, the femail connector, rub the inside with some fine emery perhaps when fully home its sittng on a poor surface and arcing
. The fact that you can make it stop says to me it must be in this area somewhere
. H
FIXED IT AGAIN (probably)
I have replaced the King Lead on Harrys advice, with a Cheap Halfords one (about two foot long as well, but it's all they had) and the problem seems to be fixed. I am very annoyed that a Halfords Lead seems to work and my lovely Red Magnecor doesn't
I will go for a proper drive after work and check it out properly.
Pete
This is very interesting, on my chimaera the number 1 and 3? lead tops touch the swirl tank. With my £90 Magnecor leads fitted I had horrendous low rev misfires and traced it to the leads top earthing onto the Al swirl tank. The problem was fixed by slipping two layers of plastic cut from a 2L milk bottle between the lead and the swirl tank. I complained to ACT who I bought the leads off and was phoned by a Magnecor representative who could not explain to me how a Robert Wisemans platsic milk bottle has better insulating properties than a Magnecor lead, I have since dumped them and replaced with std LR leads these still earth out, still need my milk bottle but only cost £20. I have serious doubts about the benefits of these Magnecor leads.
This is very interesting, on my chimaera the number 1 and 3? lead tops touch the swirl tank. With my £90 Magnecor leads fitted I had horrendous low rev misfires and traced it to the leads top earthing onto the Al swirl tank. The problem was fixed by slipping two layers of plastic cut from a 2L milk bottle between the lead and the swirl tank. I complained to ACT who I bought the leads off and was phoned by a Magnecor representative who could not explain to me how a Robert Wisemans platsic milk bottle has better insulating properties than a Magnecor lead, I have since dumped them and replaced with std LR leads these still earth out, still need my milk bottle but only cost £20. I have serious doubts about the benefits of these Magnecor leads.
I use the £24 Halfrauds/Bosch leads - used on track days, not a problem. I can change them each year without seeking an addition mortgage.
My Celtic background just cannot justify the X 3 price hike for nicely coloured, fancy written, "improvement" HT leads for my Chimaera - which other refer to as Magnecor Leads.
Each to their own I guess, except for existing customers.......
Trev McM
My Celtic background just cannot justify the X 3 price hike for nicely coloured, fancy written, "improvement" HT leads for my Chimaera - which other refer to as Magnecor Leads.
Each to their own I guess, except for existing customers.......
Trev McM
This is all quite interesting as I also had a dodgy HT lead which was arcing on the swirl tank as part of my new magnicor set a while back. Tim at ACT swapped it for another one with no problems and the car ran fine after that.
However, it does seem that an awful lot of people have had the same problem with the main HT lead on the Magnicor set.
Maybe they should look into their quality control a bit more.
As for using a plastic milk carton to shield the lead/swirl pot, well I'm pretty sure it would melt in no time at all on my car. Doesn't sound like a long term solution to me.
Phil
However, it does seem that an awful lot of people have had the same problem with the main HT lead on the Magnicor set.
Maybe they should look into their quality control a bit more.
As for using a plastic milk carton to shield the lead/swirl pot, well I'm pretty sure it would melt in no time at all on my car. Doesn't sound like a long term solution to me.
Phil
This is all quite interesting as I also had a dodgy HT lead which was arcing on the swirl tank as part of my new magnicor set a while back. Tim at ACT swapped it for another one with no problems and the car ran fine after that.
However, it does seem that an awful lot of people have had the same problem with the main HT lead on the Magnicor set.
Maybe they should look into their quality control a bit more.
As for using a plastic milk carton to shield the lead/swirl pot, well I'm pretty sure it would melt in no time at all on my car. Doesn't sound like a long term solution to me.
Phil
However, it does seem that an awful lot of people have had the same problem with the main HT lead on the Magnicor set.
Maybe they should look into their quality control a bit more.
As for using a plastic milk carton to shield the lead/swirl pot, well I'm pretty sure it would melt in no time at all on my car. Doesn't sound like a long term solution to me.
Phil
It seems to me that the Magnecor leads are being maligned unfairly here. There are two seperate issues here, one about arcing and the second about bouncy tachos.
Firstly arcing. There is no intrinsic problem with the leads, unless you have a faulty one. Personally I have seen one faulty one in fifteen years. Magnecor are the only leads that work for my customers who run the Lucas-GEMS engines underwater (in off-roaders - yes I've got the pictures to prove it). So no arguments there then.
If you have seen arcing out, it may well be due to a faulty distributor cap. This would be especially true since you have also tried standard Land Rover leads and had the same problem. For every time that a spark manages to track out, it lays down a track of carbon which makes it's job easier next time. In the early stages, this is very hard to see.
Now it may be that your first Magnecor lead was a dud, and now that the tracking process is established you need a new distributor cap. Alternatively the track may have already been there before you fitted the Magnecors. Either way there should NEVER EVER be an instance where you need a plastic bottle to help out.
By the way, you also need to watch out for the quality of the distributor caps. For a time there were some very nasty pale blue ones floating around. They were so thin that you could almost see through them, and they had a marbled appearance because they were so badly moulded. They also had very short lead towers, presumably to save two grams of nasty plastic. For these caps, tracking out is routine standard equipment.
Secondly, bouncy tachos. This is usually always caused by one of the following things, and is often exposed by fitting Magnecor leads. The first cause is that your coil is on the way out, especially if you have one of the hideous cheapo ones marked only "Coil 220 Electronic". The only coil to use is a genuine Bosch one - do not use anything else.
You can get coils and caps from ACT, amongst others.
The other problems mainly afflict Serpentine cars, since the ignition amplifier is mounted remotely from the distributor. In these cases, the trigger wire from the distributor to the amplifier is usually tie-wrapped to the breather pipe across the front of the engine along with the king lead. This is a bad idea. The trigger lead does not want to be anywhere near any plug leads at all.
Also, dodgy alternators cause bouncy tachos. Further, the alternator does not like the king lead wedged down by the back of it.
If you follow all this through, there should not be a problem unless I have forgotten to mention anything. I've never had one car that had a bouncy tacho because of a Magnecor lead (15 years, 2,500+ cars). Ever. You can always bring it to me in the hope of proving me wrong...
>> Edited by Mark Adams on Friday 3rd June 19:00
Firstly arcing. There is no intrinsic problem with the leads, unless you have a faulty one. Personally I have seen one faulty one in fifteen years. Magnecor are the only leads that work for my customers who run the Lucas-GEMS engines underwater (in off-roaders - yes I've got the pictures to prove it). So no arguments there then.
If you have seen arcing out, it may well be due to a faulty distributor cap. This would be especially true since you have also tried standard Land Rover leads and had the same problem. For every time that a spark manages to track out, it lays down a track of carbon which makes it's job easier next time. In the early stages, this is very hard to see.
Now it may be that your first Magnecor lead was a dud, and now that the tracking process is established you need a new distributor cap. Alternatively the track may have already been there before you fitted the Magnecors. Either way there should NEVER EVER be an instance where you need a plastic bottle to help out.
By the way, you also need to watch out for the quality of the distributor caps. For a time there were some very nasty pale blue ones floating around. They were so thin that you could almost see through them, and they had a marbled appearance because they were so badly moulded. They also had very short lead towers, presumably to save two grams of nasty plastic. For these caps, tracking out is routine standard equipment.
Secondly, bouncy tachos. This is usually always caused by one of the following things, and is often exposed by fitting Magnecor leads. The first cause is that your coil is on the way out, especially if you have one of the hideous cheapo ones marked only "Coil 220 Electronic". The only coil to use is a genuine Bosch one - do not use anything else.
You can get coils and caps from ACT, amongst others.
The other problems mainly afflict Serpentine cars, since the ignition amplifier is mounted remotely from the distributor. In these cases, the trigger wire from the distributor to the amplifier is usually tie-wrapped to the breather pipe across the front of the engine along with the king lead. This is a bad idea. The trigger lead does not want to be anywhere near any plug leads at all.
Also, dodgy alternators cause bouncy tachos. Further, the alternator does not like the king lead wedged down by the back of it.
If you follow all this through, there should not be a problem unless I have forgotten to mention anything. I've never had one car that had a bouncy tacho because of a Magnecor lead (15 years, 2,500+ cars). Ever. You can always bring it to me in the hope of proving me wrong...
>> Edited by Mark Adams on Friday 3rd June 19:00
I fitted 10mm dia, high performance leads to my chim a few weeks ago and suffered the bouncy tacho. Not sure about any arking etc - haven't noticed any.
At the weekend i changed the king lead back to the standard item and the bouncy tacho stopped!!!???
Will check out all the items listed above just to be on the safe side but whats going on?
At the weekend i changed the king lead back to the standard item and the bouncy tacho stopped!!!???
Will check out all the items listed above just to be on the safe side but whats going on?
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