A Series 12v Coil?

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Stuffed" saying something like:

Compare the primary resistances of both coils - you may find the electronic coil is half the resistance of the conventional one. This is also ignoring the other coil characteristics that may be different.

Fwiw, for a ShiteOldCar, I'd go rummaging in the breakers for a close match and fit it.

So not only find the parts that are around here somewhere, but also the multimeter? Might just buy new, I can find the motor factors! ;)

That's my general way of thinking. But the breakers around here are a little on the utter bastard ripoff side of things, I might hold out for something on Fleabay to show up. There's a couple of ignition modules listed at the moment, and one or two coils. And believe it or not, there doesn't sem to be that many 1275 Metros, Monties or Maestros at the scrappers round here anymore, and the wether is too crap to go crawling around for fun..

I got a s/h coil, dizzy, couple of ignition modules, and fuel pump. And a speedo cable, as mine decided to melt onto teh exhaust the other day, but that's not related to the running problems :)

Bearing in mind I have only done a couple of 2 mile test drives today, so I can't be sure of the results:

First thing I did was take the dizzy apart to familiarise myself with the internals.

Fitted the coil - No real difference.

Changed ignition module - Rev counter now seems smooth, no jumping around

2 - 3k. Noticeable improvement in engine behaviour, although the cutting out glitch still present to an extent, and still a high rev missfire (would spin up nicely to desired revs, then splutter and drop about 200rpm with a misfire).

Give in, and take the top part of the dizzy off. Check the pick up coil thingy, and the tape around it has come slightly adrift at the end, and is blackened. Decide this is not right, and fit spare from other dizzy. High rev misfire nearly 100% cured. Cutting out problem only noticed once, and very minor, more a glitch than severe.

I also played with the carb a bit, including trying a different dashpot (in case it was a weak spring or just worn). Needle is a couple of profiles from spec, but no real improvement, although the mixture screw actually does something now. Might well not be anything to do with the problem, and needs setting up still.

From this, I think what happened was both the pickup and module were faulty - Maybe the module cooked the pickup, maybe the other way round. The pickup was not fully shot though, and triggered the spark around the right time, but higher up the revs was too weak to trigger every time. The module wasn't causing too much trouble with the spark, but obviously wasn't working fully as it was sending false signals (as seen by rev counter). It's still not perfect, but as each part gets replaced it improves, so it's a matter of tracking each problem down at a time.

So, the modules can be faulty without packing in completely (and are very easy to replace, and common on some Fords, later K series Metros, Montegos, etc), as can the pickups. Hope that's of use to anyone with another car using the same system, who can't work out wtf is wrong with it! :)

Oh, all of this seems to have resulted in a little more power too - Last test was the start of rush hour, so not able to open her up much, but far more responsive, smoother to near the red line, and more urgency pulling away. Fingers crossed some of all this effort and money has ahceived something :)