anotherfire

iTrader: (2)

My leading J-209 ignitor recently died, and I am unable to find one at any of the local wrecker's at this time. I read somewhere that the 12A can run on the leading-only so I'm considering swapping the trailing ignitor to run the leading ignition circuit, and simply remove the trailing spark plug wires and coil, at least until I find another ignitor, or till the summer when I might try the 2nd gen ignition swap.

Is there anything I should know about disabling the trailing circuit before i go ahead? Is there an advantage, or any severe disadvantages to this setup? I know the trailing spark is mainly for cleaner emissions, but all my other emissions controls are gone anyway. I once ran the car across town without the trailing ignition coil hooked up (going to the store for a new one) and it seemed to run just the same as with both.

But can I get the tach signal from the leading ignition coil?

KompressorLOgic

iTrader: (6)

yeah the car will run fairly well with only the leading ignition, that happend to a couple diff people i know.

just remove both ignitors and swap there locations and then u have leading ignition and no trailing since that ignitor will now be the bad one , then leave all the trailing wires ect still attached. no need go unplugging everything if you plan on replacing it.

you can probbaly find one from a forum member easily locally . from all the parts cars we have had i probbaly have handfuls of ignitors ill sell u one if u cant find one

anotherfire

iTrader: (2)

I think I just blew the second ignitor. I swapped the trailing ignitor to the primary circuit, but did not replace it with the bad primary because of the difficulty getting a screwdriver to the side of the distributor housing (the alternator leaves about an inch of clearance.

The car started, and ran right away, and it seemed all was good, except that there was no tach, and the battery meter was almost pegged. I jumpered the negative terminals on both ignition coils and got the tach signal, it was warming up at my usual 1500rpm, but the battery meter was still reading way too high. (this is only with the engine running, with the ignition on, but not running the meter reads about 11 volts from my somewhat weak battery).

I gently pressed the gas to watch the tach move and listen to the badly missed sound of my 7, when at about 2000rpm it quit.

so I wonder if the over voltage was accurate, and if so what could cause a voltage increase like that? would 16 or 18 volts fry an ignitor just like that? is this the sign of a dying alternator?

kompressorlogic, I might take you up on that offer for a couple J-109's :P

Jeff20B

iTrader: (13)

Two problems. You didn't use any heat sink compound. One ignitor can't power two coils for very long.

anotherfire

iTrader: (2)

How is that running both coils? I connected both negatives to bridge the tach signal, but not the positive terminals. without an ignitor plugged in to the secondary circuit wouldn't that coil see no power?

Jeff20B

iTrader: (13)

It's possible the coil was still firing because the postive terminal is receiving 12V when the key is on.

anotherfire

iTrader: (2)

Well that's silly isn't it.

I guess that explains the second blown ignitor, but what about the high voltage reading? does the batt. voltage gauge have anything to do with the ignition circuits? I wish I could check the output from the alternator but I guess the car won't be running again until I get my hands on some ignitors.

KompressorLOgic

iTrader: (6)

lol ohh geez how did u blow both! , yeah when people i know have ran on 1 they dindt try anything like jumpering something to the other coil or what ever u tried...

thats really weird about the volt meter, i wonder what happend.

send me a pm we can work on a price

anotherfire

iTrader: (2)

Got some ignitors, Thanks Dan_S_Young! Reconnected everything and it fired up instantly! (with a boost). However, the volt meter was still way up there reading about 17-18 volts at warm up idle speed and rose when the car was revved. I connected a multimeter to the alternator and revved gently. It was putting out 16.5 volts at the most revving to maybe 3k. I wasn't too surprised that the dash gauge was a couple volts off.

The voltmeter in the dash seemed to be slowly returning closer to normal after about 20 mins of idling, so I took it for a drive around the block a few times and by the time I got back home the meter was reading normally, showing about 12V at Idle, and 13 or 14 cruising. maybe it was just because of my dead battery, but it seems to be working now.