I'm not sure exactly where to start so instead of making this real looonnnggg I'll try to start with current problem!...The trailing igniter Blew again.!!! This is #3 The last time I posted, I was wondering and trying to figure out WHY the trailing igniter zapped again #2. It was suggested to me to check coils and wires , add heatsink grease and should be fine. After checking and finding the proper voltage at the coils and the proper Ohms I thought all was well....not so I fired her up and away we went. After about 100 km I found that the car began to show signs of the Cat Plug, ..slow suggish and it even went rather quiet!..So I had the Cat exchanged. perrrfect..it was Back!! Drove another 100km and fine. Went to move the car last night and ZAP the Tach went to 0 and stalled out. This is now 3 igniters all in the trailing which have ZAPPED!.. In retro ...It seems as though all 3 have burnt out just after or (perhaps thats when i noticed it due to the tach not working)when start up occurs. Now I have no tach, no fuel pump, no start, no REPLACEMENT IGNITERS. Qestion 1. Does anyone have an answer as to what it could be that is Killing my Trailing Ignitor on Start-up?? Question 2: is anyone willing to sell me a couple of Ignitors?..I have to run now but will check in a while Hey Im at my limit now...This was supposed to be a fun enjoyable hobby to drive in the summer but unfortunately I haven' t been able to drive it much!..Damn! George

 

Could just be bad luck. You have been using used ones.

 

Could it be that either 1. the insulation on your spark plug wires is failing or 2. there is a crack in the ignition coil tower and occasionally some of the spark energy is jumping to the ground (or even positive, it is higher potential than the positive too) side and knocking out the igniter? I've only had one that was bad and it was that way when I got it so I can't really help with failure modes of the igniters. Good luck!

 

Thanks for the replies. Yes they are old but 3 in just the Trailing in just a few 100km seems to be a bit co-incidental...even though I do tend to have bad luck!!!( is that better than NO LUCK?) anyways I was hoping for a great Explanation as I'm really not the Master Rotary Head. I believe it is possible that something may have triggered or "Jumped" to create a short and Zapped the ignitorbut I'm not sure what. I will check the coils again but when I looked prior I didn't detect any cracks ..The wires are Relatively new and so I didn't really concider that but will check that as well especially from the trailing coil..I was wondering if it might have something to do with the Starter? but wouln't that blow a fuse first? Or mayber if there was something not right in the distributor. I noticed the wires in the dist. when I changed the ignitors is there something i didn't check for or See? Help! I don't really know ...( thats why I'm Here!!)

 

If your plug wires can't complete the circuit when firing then the ignitors will fail.

just something you might like to know to keep an eye out for.

 

Since the tach is triggered by the trailing igniter, you might want to check for a fault in the wiring from the igniter to the tach.

 

Problem is, I'm not sure the low voltage signals from the dizzy, or that are sent to the Tach are enough to blow an igniter. And I'm not so sure there is a path back from the starter to the igniter either. I'm sticking to high voltage zapping it, or what Phiber mentioned. Get some dielectric grease on those sparkplug wires to make a better connection and make sure they are seated firmly.

 

If you're using factory wirings, I suspect a short somewhere. If I were you, I will run 2 new wires from coil to trailing igniter. that will give ya a temporary relief OR maybe permanent if youre lazy to track it down.

 

Thanks ..Seems like Alien and Phiber are on the same wavelength..so I'll check and perhaps replace the spark plug wires..and depending I just might replace the wires from the coil to the ignitor as wacky suggested. Then I'll try and pickup an igniter to make her Purr again!

 

I have 7 ignitors I'm selling for $35 each -- tested. They're also on ebay -- just do a search.