Cutting-out problem
Discussion
The 400SX has developed a problem where the spark seems to die for a few seconds. This usually happens fairly soon after starting the car, once it recovers then it is fine for the rest of the journey.
I have recently had the coil and ignition amplifier replaced (at huge expense by a garage! Luckily I kept the old parts!!), which seemed to cure it for a while, but now it's back to its old tricks.
It does look likely that this is a connection problem - although the distributor cap/rotor arm is the last weak link in the chain that needs looking at. Perhaps the garage disturbed the connections so that it started working?
I'll have to get my oscilloscope onto it - the trouble is reproducing the problem, it doesn't always happen and the timing is random. Any other suggestions quite welcome.
I have recently had the coil and ignition amplifier replaced (at huge expense by a garage! Luckily I kept the old parts!!), which seemed to cure it for a while, but now it's back to its old tricks.
It does look likely that this is a connection problem - although the distributor cap/rotor arm is the last weak link in the chain that needs looking at. Perhaps the garage disturbed the connections so that it started working?
I'll have to get my oscilloscope onto it - the trouble is reproducing the problem, it doesn't always happen and the timing is random. Any other suggestions quite welcome.
I had a nightmare with my wedge and an intermittent running fault. Tried everything and it turned out to be the distributor cap/rotor arm (after replacing AFM,etc,etc), it always turns out to be the simplest things!
Don't know if you remember me Adam but I came up to look at your silver 350i last summer?
Don't know if you remember me Adam but I came up to look at your silver 350i last summer?
Well I went to the pub at lunchtime. Good job I decided to leave a little early, because it cut out and died a few hundred yards from work.
Initially I found out that the earth lead to the rev limiter wan't earthed properly. Whoever at Offord had fitted the new coil - at great expense - hadn't trapped the earthing tang under the coil mount properly. So it was flapping in the breeze like an Essex Girl's Gusset.
Having fixed that I laid down a wide groove on the grass verge I was parked on trying to rejoin the traffic only to have it cut out again. So - I pulled off the limiter connections altogether. Shoulda done this a year ago - it now runs sweet as a nut.
I'm in two minds whether to send back the new coil to Offord and ask for my money back on that. It's frigging expensive, and they only made the problem worse.
Now I can pull smoothly at 20mph in 5th as opposed to 3rd, things seem much better. I might have to come up with a better rev limiter in the long run, any suggestions?
Initially I found out that the earth lead to the rev limiter wan't earthed properly. Whoever at Offord had fitted the new coil - at great expense - hadn't trapped the earthing tang under the coil mount properly. So it was flapping in the breeze like an Essex Girl's Gusset.
Having fixed that I laid down a wide groove on the grass verge I was parked on trying to rejoin the traffic only to have it cut out again. So - I pulled off the limiter connections altogether. Shoulda done this a year ago - it now runs sweet as a nut.
I'm in two minds whether to send back the new coil to Offord and ask for my money back on that. It's frigging expensive, and they only made the problem worse.
Now I can pull smoothly at 20mph in 5th as opposed to 3rd, things seem much better. I might have to come up with a better rev limiter in the long run, any suggestions?
Actually, Rev, I think I already suffer from the throttle not opening 100%. Maybe that long cable has stretched a bit? I'll see if I can get my son to floor it while I check the throttle is against the end stop.
The rev limiter installed is the Micro Dynamics RL3 jobbie. It looks possibly dismantleable so I could bench test it with a waveform generator, and fix it if need be.
I don't like the look of how it works though - it is wired across the coil, so I can only suppose it works by shorting out the coil, which can't do the ignition amp much good, surely...
The rev limiter installed is the Micro Dynamics RL3 jobbie. It looks possibly dismantleable so I could bench test it with a waveform generator, and fix it if need be.
I don't like the look of how it works though - it is wired across the coil, so I can only suppose it works by shorting out the coil, which can't do the ignition amp much good, surely...
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