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    Bodger

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    Pinto fast road ignition

    Just wondered which ignition set up everyone recommends? Tried an accuspark set up that lasted 2 minutes .its for a 170+hp engine

    cheers

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    Re: Pinto fast road ignition

    Quote Originally Posted by marc30 View Post
    Just wondered which ignition set up everyone recommends? Tried an accuspark set up that lasted 2 minutes .its for a 170+hp engine

    cheers
    what do you mean by it lasted 2 minutes?

    if you mean the accuspark packed up you need to check why, did you have the correct coil resistance for instance? was your accuspark the real thing or a cheap Chinese ebay know off?

    are you just after an electronic ignition conversion or a whole ignition system or distributor.

    luminition systems are far from cheap but are absolutely bullet proof they never go wrong. Adlon distributors are pretty good

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    Bodger

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    Re: Pinto fast road ignition

    Morning

    I brought it from them at a show. They have replaced the igniter but still no spark. Its wired up correctly and the coil is the one that came as part of the kit. When I first installed it the engine ran well. Went to fire it up last weekend and found no spark. Seems like another igniter fault which demonstrates to me they are unreliable. Looking at reviews online many people have had issues also.

    I've been looking at the bestek ones on ebay and reviews seem good just 3 times the price

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    Re: Pinto fast road ignition

    Quote Originally Posted by marc30 View Post
    Morning


    I've been looking at the bestek ones on ebay and reviews seem good just 3 times the price
    sometimes you gets what you pays for!

    i would use a luminition by far the most reliable electronic ignition system, i know of loads that are now around 50 years old and still working, we used to sell 1000's they never went wrong, i used to have a factory luminition machine for testing modules, i sold it as we never ever needed to use it.

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    Racer Decade Plus User Forest_rallying's Avatar

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    Re: Pinto fast road ignition

    Quote Originally Posted by marc30 View Post
    Morning

    I brought it from them at a show. They have replaced the igniter but still no spark. Its wired up correctly and the coil is the one that came as part of the kit. When I first installed it the engine ran well. Went to fire it up last weekend and found no spark. Seems like another igniter fault which demonstrates to me they are unreliable. Looking at reviews online many people have had issues also.

    I've been looking at the bestek ones on ebay and reviews seem good just 3 times the price
    That's not what I wanted to read! I was supplied with an Accuspark igniter fitted and the advance set up on a distributor a few years ago by a reputable engine builder. I have also obtained the correct coil, leads,rotor arm and cap direct from Accuspark. To me they must be made in China because the price just seems too cheap to be anything of decent quality.

    Hopefully this weekend I'll try and get the engine started after what seems like an etternity getting the car finished. I must say I do have doubts to how reliable the electronic ignition will be when you see the size of it in the distributor.
    Last edited by Forest_rallying; 07-04-2020 at 19:10.

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    Bodger

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    Re: Pinto fast road ignition

    I’ve asked if I can send the whole lay back to be tested or my money back. So far no response ��♂️

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    Racer Decade Plus User Forest_rallying's Avatar

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    Re: Pinto fast road ignition

    Which coil did you use, red or blue? They are probably closed due to lockdown.

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    Bodger

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    Re: Pinto fast road ignition

    Quote Originally Posted by Forest_rallying View Post
    Which coil did you use, red or blue? They are probably closed due to lockdown.
    they have been responsive up until now . I used the red coil - non vacuum

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    Re: Pinto fast road ignition

    For info - a coil doesn't care whether system is vac or not - its about volts - 9 or 12v / ballasted or not

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    Racer Decade Plus User Forest_rallying's Avatar

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    Re: Pinto fast road ignition

    Quote Originally Posted by marc30 View Post
    they have been responsive up until now . I used the red coil - non vacuum
    According to the Accuspark blurb, Red coil's for 12v and the Blue one's 9v ballast resistor.

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    Bodger capri dave's Avatar

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    Re: Pinto fast road ignition

    It seems to be a recurrent theme on a Capri forum I frequent, Accuspark electronic ignitions failing.

    Buy cheap... Buy twice
    http://www.scooternations.com/

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    Re: Pinto fast road ignition

    Quote Originally Posted by capri dave View Post
    It seems to be a recurrent theme on a Capri forum I frequent, Accuspark electronic ignitions failing.

    Buy cheap... Buy twice
    I must admit I haven't heard anything good about them.

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    Racer Decade Plus User Forest_rallying's Avatar

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    Re: Pinto fast road ignition

    Quote Originally Posted by capri dave View Post
    It seems to be a recurrent theme on a Capri forum I frequent, Accuspark electronic ignitions failing.

    Buy cheap... Buy twice
    It wasn't a case of buying cheap for me but getting stuck with what the engine builder fitted when he set my advance curve on the distributor. If someone had said then that they were unreliable I would have given the brand a very wide swerve.

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    Re: Pinto fast road ignition

    Quote Originally Posted by Forest_rallying View Post
    It wasn't a case of buying cheap for me but getting stuck with what the engine builder fitted when he set my advance curve on the distributor. If someone had said then that they were unreliable I would have given the brand a very wide swerve.
    nothing to stop you fitting a different system, it wont effect the advance curve but you may have to adjust the timing

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    Racer Decade Plus User Forest_rallying's Avatar

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    Re: Pinto fast road ignition

    Quote Originally Posted by Graham View Post
    nothing to stop you fitting a different system, it wont effect the advance curve but you may have to adjust the timing
    I am going to see if it'll start on the Accuspark ignition first before trying anything else. If I have any ignition trouble one of the first thing I do is fit a std distributor with points to eliminate any electronic ignition issues. The problem now is I seem to have run short on supply of std dizzies.

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    Re: Pinto fast road ignition

    I wouldnt use accuspark again, too many first hand experiences like this one where stuff works one second and then dead the next.

    Similar price point to accuspark stuff, but have had much better experiences with powerspark - https://simonbbc.com/

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    Racer Decade Plus User Forest_rallying's Avatar

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    Re: Pinto fast road ignition

    I finally got the engine running yesterday but not without it's problems, my fears regarding the ignition system weren't wrong. I don't know if it's Accuspark, Powerspark or AN other as there's no name on it only some numbers.

    I timed the distributor up static the best I could but with electronic it's not quite as straight forward as a set of points. On turning the engine over on the key the engine would fire but not even attempt to start, no 1 cylinder exhaust pipe was hot and the other 3 stone cold. I double and treble checked the plug leads were correct. There was a feable spark but not what it should be. My next step was to set no 1 cylinder up on firing and remove the distributor cap. To my amazement the rotor arm was now pointing at no4 cylinder on the distributor cap. I put my hand on the rotor arm and I could turn it on the shaft realising something was amiss. There's a firing ring that goes over the lobes on the dizzy shaft and it sits proud, it wasn't allowing the rotor arm to lock into the locating slot. Whether there's a different type of rotor arm for this set up I don't know but I had to modify mine by cross drilling it, tapping and fitting a 5mm machine screw.

    Everything back together for another try, insantly the engine fired on all cylinders but didn't start. I swung the dizzy slightly and tried again. This time it struck up on all 4 cylinders and it was running quite well. After the engine got up to temperature I could set the timing up with the strobe. Nowhere can I find what spark plug gaps they recommend for these systems.

    I hope this information might be of some help to someone having problems with their ignition sytem, it might just be something simple and not an outright problem with the electronics.
    Last edited by Forest_rallying; 12-04-2020 at 20:24.

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    Re: Pinto fast road ignition

    No good reason to gap the plugs anything other than std. gaps. With a high power coil, gaps could be widened but unless the mixture is lean it will achieve not much IMO

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    Re: Pinto fast road ignition

    Quote Originally Posted by katana View Post
    No good reason to gap the plugs anything other than std. gaps. With a high power coil, gaps could be widened but unless the mixture is lean it will achieve not much IMO
    They were just a set of old plugs that were put in for the purpose of starting up. I am not even sure what car they came out of other than it was a Ford. The Pinto engine I have is fitted with 14mm adaptors so really anything goes. Once I get the engine settled in I'll then fit the correct grade of plugs.

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    Pinto fast road ignition

    Quote Originally Posted by marc30 View Post
    Just wondered which ignition set up everyone recommends? Tried an accuspark set up that lasted 2 minutes .its for a 170+hp engine

    cheers
    Hi,
    We have used Simonbcc, Aldon and also Pertronix 3ohm ignitor units successfully with genuine Bosch coils. Also, Lumenition never failed on our engines. We had one and only failure in the rally and it was the standard electronic Sierra distributor with its own module. However, the failure was just a bad luck. When you said for 170 bhp spec engine, it is probably with twin DCOEs and you will need a properly curved Non-Vac Bosch distributor with a quality “ ignitor” fitted + genuine Bosch coil.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

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