Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Huge apology! I read the ‘thanks for replies’ and just made the assumption! My bad!

Co-incidentally, i was searching for the Ignitor test procedure and was about to post this:
https://www.aldonauto.co.uk/news/aldon- ... --testing-
I think the same applies for Pertronix as I understand they are the same.

Back to yours. You have an orange spark. OK good, a spark is a spark at this stage and should do its job if the timing and mixture is good. If though it does not work with your ‘fast start’, them something else not right. Timing springs to mind as a possibility.

Are you running a ballast coil? I still assume not and could be why the spark is weak.

Do you have access to a proper spark tester?
These are better than a plug.

Your battery - how good is it in turning the engine?

no worries, timing is good the car has been running, admit-ably rough, i got the battery checked at local store and said it was low, fully charged it spins the engine over faster but still wont fire, i have had it going, but starting has been very hard. Timing has not been touched for a very long time, so nothing should of changed.

I dont know if i have a ballast coli, i will get to this later and take it off for proper examination,

I can order a spark plug tester, what will this show, colour change?

I was thinking of upgrading to Lucas gold coil anyway to improve starting, far cheaper than a new battery.

General question, what battery specification would you put on, 600+CCA AMPS?

I don’t think it is enough to accept the timing is good but it is running rough.

I would buy a new set of plugs before a coil, and then start all over from the beginning, get it running then adjust mixture.

Coils are not matched to the battery. Determine the make of your ignitor and ask them. Bear in mind they will probably suggest a ballast type. This may require another wire from your starter solenoid over to the coil.

street wrote:HCA, thanks for replying, you are however mixing in response from wotitsname
.

HCA wrote:Huge apology! I read the ‘thanks for replies’ and just made the assumption! My bad!

My Apologies, I caused the confusion here....

Can you jump start from another vehicle and measure the voltages during this process ? This might help to determine if there are other "wiring" related issues - meaning you will suffer the same issues even if the battery is replaced.

Adrian

To further isolate the problem you could bypass the ignition switch circuit by temporarily connecting the coil directly to the battery +ve supply and seeing if the car starts normally. If it does you know you've found the problem area.

Orange spark doesn't sound good by the way. Should be blue.

Adrian - yes, you could jump from another battery but it might be best to disconnect the -ve of the donor car just in case. However, if you do it to check voltages, you will of course be getting measurements of the donor battery. If though a jump did get your car started, then it will show that your battery is suspect.

You said though that you are getting 12V at the coil now, so not sure a jump is going to prove much. As it is now, is the starter able to give the engine a healthy spin?

You are getting no spark at all. A bigger issue! I urge you to check the HT leads first. Then the Aldon. Then the cap for cracks (pull out the centre HT lead and hold near engine whilst cranking. A new set of plugs. Then Coil.

If your Aldon is at fault, then I would ask you to seriously look at/consider a basic Megajolt distributerless set-up. Best £450 you will ever spend...

Replying to wotsitname, in your post you ssid the following

''measured the resistance of the leads (4.3 to 5kohm for the 4 plug leads). The coil to cap lead is ca. 8k ohm... seems a different type''
''Coil removed to bench. I get 5.7kohm from +to the output and same reading from -ve to output. + to - gives a reading of 3.7ohm''...

In comparison i bought a set of performance leads from burton power my readings are as follows:

Main HT LEAD 4.2kohm
1 5.1
2 4.7
3 5.3
4 5.2

the coil gives 8.91 + to output
-ve to +ve only shows .003, i will double check.

Resistance of the high tension leads themselves is of little importance, resistance is introduce to suppress radio frequency emissions from the ignition system.
I think you left your meter range on K ohm to measure 0.003, it’s unlikely you can measure 0.003 ohms, if its correct then you have a short circuit. Double check your meter zero with test leads shorted together.

+1 +1

2cams70 wrote:To further isolate the problem you could bypass the ignition switch circuit by temporarily connecting the coil directly to the battery +ve supply and seeing if the car starts normally. If it does you know you've found the problem area.

Orange spark doesn't sound good by the way. Should be blue.

One of the reasons I also suggested to do this is to bypass that dodgy ignition kill switch that some Elans seem to have in circuit.