11 replies to this topic

[moonmini]

Hi people, i have just fitted an electronic ignition to a mini and took it for a drive and all was well, but then when we took it out again the car broke down and is now not starting at all, i have taken the destributor to pieces and put it back together and everything seems to be ok in it but car is still not starting, there is no spark at the spark plug.could anyone help please? thanks

[Dan]

What type of electronic ignition did you fit? How did you go about fitting it?

[moonmini]

What type of electronic ignition did you fit? How did you go about fitting it?

its a lumenition mtk007 magnetronic ignition system for lucas 45d4 type distributors, i connected it the way the instructions tells you to, but it does say to connect the red wire to positive on coil if ballast resistor is not present, but i dont kno if its got one or not lol, how do i tel? i have it connected to coil, but sureley it wouldnt of worked for a while in the first place if that was the problem. cheers

[RacingGreen]

is there a pink wire going to the coil?

[moonmini]

is there a pink wire going to the coil?

yeah there is an existing pink and white wire going to the positive side

[RacingGreen]

Thats the ballast wire wire then. in that case, i think you have to give the electronic ignition a switched 12v feed from the fusebox. I had a problem with a lumenition ignition i fitted to mine, exactly the same problem as yours.

[Dan]

Sadly when you feed electronic ignition with the incorrect voltage like this it tends to work for a short time and then fail, it usually takes longer than one trip though. It may have destroyed the electronics. You might get it to work by giving it 12 volts but it might be damaged internally now. The presence of the extra load on the end of the ballast will have been altering the voltage available to the coil too. As a result it may be that it is the coil that is damaged and not the electronics, that would be the cheaper problem to fix. All you can do at this point is install the unit with a full 12 volt supply and see if everything starts working. If it doesn't then you'll have to start trying to identify what is broken.

[moonmini]

Thats the ballast wire wire then. in that case, i think you have to give the electronic ignition a switched 12v feed from the fusebox. I had a problem with a lumenition ignition i fitted to mine, exactly the same problem as yours.

ok thanks mate when you say a switched feed do you mean through the ignition? if so is it ok to follow a wire that comes from the ignition and hack in to it just after the fuse box?

[Dan]

You don't need to, the fuse box should have spare spade terminals on it. What year is the car from?

[moonmini]

oh yeah i didnt think of doin that. its a 91. what size fuse will it need to go through? will i be discarding the pink wire?
The car ran ok for one short drive but then cut out next time and now will only turn over, did yours do the same thing?

[Dan]

The pink/white and white/yellow wires will remain in place running the coil. The new feed will just be running the electronic module. You must not increase the rating of the fuses in the box, use the fused side of the ignition circuits fuse (the top one unless it's been put back together badly by someone, it has white wiring) for your supply. The extra load of the module on this fuse will be tiny and won't be a problem.

Assuming you are still using the standard coil that is...

[moonmini]

The pink/white and white/yellow wires will remain in place running the coil. The new feed will just be running the electronic module. You must not increase the rating of the fuses in the box, use the fused side of the ignition circuits fuse (the top one unless it's been put back together badly by someone, it has white wiring) for your supply. The extra load of the module on this fuse will be tiny and won't be a problem.

Assuming you are still using the standard coil that is...

no its a wipac ballast ignition coil