SLROC Forum

Hey guys, strange one here, my ignition coil is creating a blue spark that jumps between the main body, specifically the cone that the lead plugs on to, and the positive terminal.

If i start it up it is fine for about 30 seconds then i hear this ticking and you can see the spark i was talking about. You also hear the engine speed drop slightly with each spark.

The spark is intermittent, sometimes a few a second and sometimes 10 seconds without.

Ive replaced both the coil and the lead and the problem persists. Ive also put a rubber plug over the positive treminal and this has helped but now the spark is jumping to the Negative terminal!! The spark is less frequent on the -ve terminal.

The car runs fine, apart from this drop in engine speed but its not ideal.

The coil is a Lucas and comes in a green box, i replaced it with the same one as was on it before.

Any ideas welcome

Ally

Sounds like the coil is producing a wee bit too much of a spark (if you can have such a thing).  First thought was a ballasted coil fitted to a standard ignition system.

ZD

Its just a standard coil thats on it, friend is running the exact same coil on his.

Big development though! After replacing the coil it was running with the sparking problem but now it wont start and the coil is constantly arcing.  Quite impressive in the dark!

Really need some help with this now, kinda need the car to get to work on monday morn!

Cheers

sparks will take the easy route so i would think your dizzy cap or rotor arm is shot  making it easier to arc than go down the right route

That would make sense, and the extra power from the new coil has just properly killed whatever it was that was dying before.

Cheers guys really really helpful!

Right, managed to fix it. Was a number of things.

Checked the dizzy cap and the connection to plug 1 was correded, so swapped out the dizzy cap for another one i had kicking about, still wouldnt start, checked all the leads and found,  No 1 fell apart in my hands and 4 others were perished and craked so replaced all of them, started but sounded a bit ropey, bought a full set of new plugs and found 3 different varietys of the old ones! Fitted the new plugs, soretd out all the leads gave it a spin and hey presto!! One roaring V8. Messed about with the timing a bit and advanced it about 5 degrees and its a whole new animal!!

Thanks for all the advice from everyone

Ally

Nice one!

BTW timing should be 6-7 degrees if I remember the manual correctly.

Should go better now and maybe drink less fuel