Crank Sensor Fitting

[steve-v8s]

I have seen various threads about fitting crank sensors to the Serp engine. There seem to be two main routes. Either the JE kit, or a Ford part. Having already suffered a snapped crank, possibly due to bad balancing I am quite nervous of machining away the damper as recommended by some or adding any weight as seems to be the case with the JE part. Can someone with a bit more knowledge about this convince me that all will be well with this mod ?

Also is it possible to remove the front pulley and fit a sensor wheel with the Griff engine fitted ?

An option that appeals to me is an optical slot sensor that won’t need a metal wheel to trigger it, perhaps with a light, toothed fiberglass disk adhered to the pulley front. Anybody tried that ?

Edited by steve-v8s on Saturday 11th November 21:04

[2Munkys]

Hi Steve

I guess you're intending to position your sparks from this.
My Omex uses a Ford sensor. It's fitted in a neat little bracket that was machined from solid and takes its queue from a steel trigger wheel mounted at the back of the damper. It came via Mark Adams but I understand was manufactured by 'Mech Repair' in Cheltenham.

I removed the damper and pulley wheel assembly and forwarded it on to TVR Power so that the balance could be reinstated after the skirt was removed and replaced with the trigger wheel. Could be a very expensive skimp otherwise .

[GreenV8S]

I'm using a 36-1 toothed wheel (supplied by JE, but there are plenty of other places that will supply them) on the back of the pulley with my own little bracket for the MVR pickup, I haven't had any noticeable balance problems.

[dnb]

I'm using the same trigger as GreenV8S. No problems so far - the JE wheel is pretty well balanced, apart from the missing tooth that is... Nothing needs to be done to the balance weight itself as the trigger wheel bolts on the back of it.

[2Munkys]

At the weekend I'll post a shot of my trigger assembly and explain the reason for a rebalance. I'm not suggesting it'd be requisite to all installs as obviously there's more than one way to achieve the same objective.

[2Munkys]

O.k, here it is. I guess I could have got the car up on the lift and taken a better shot from underneath that would incude the trigger wheel but I'm a bit pushed for time this weekend; sorry. Anyway, this is the Ford transducer mounted in its own bespoke bracketry.

The assembly was rebalanced because the skirt which had a small weight welded to it is now redundant.

[dnb]

The skirt mine didn't have any weights - balancing appeared to be done by drilling the balancer disc. Guess it's luck of the draw as to how they're done...