Just picked up a replacement 3.8 engine for Poorly Jag [1] and it has an electronic ignition set up in the distributor - does anyone know who manufactured it?
Another thing, do the core plugs look recent?
[1]
Looks similar to the Lucas Rita system fitted to various old british bikes. Is the black box a small magnet by any chance?
It does look like a Rita (my Guzzi has one) - at least it's a similar pickup system but they tend to have rubber mounted, branded black boxes with heat sinks and that system isn't unique to Rita.
I also think they're no longer trading and that setup looks quite recent, rust aside.
Aww, Poorly Jag. Tell me, do you call it that because it is poorly, or to differentiate it from another - Well Jag, for example? You don't have two Jags, do you?
I dunno about recent - because they're galvanised, they always appear to be a different colour to the surrounding block: however the rearmost plug is in the opposite way round to the others that are visible and I would have thought that they'd all be the same way round out of the factory.
A member of the Labour party with a brace of Jags?!
Nah, it'd never happen...
Not on the original engine - core plugs on the replacement:
I only have the one - a brace of MZs [1], an altogether different matter...
[1] I think we decided the collective noun for MZs was "a collective"
The plugs will stay clean and shiny on the outside its what you can't see inside will be corroded.
Ignition don't know. But there must be an amplifier module which it connects not straight to the coil. Obviously the distributor does not have a module so its an external one that's required.
Good the see the broken rings didn't do more damage.
r
Mallory? It looks like the one on my old V8 Rangy.
JB
Looks like the Lucas DM. The 'black box' is a variable reluctance (VR) sensor which goes to an amplifier which then feeds the coil. Is the dizzy marked DM?
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "sweller" saying something like:
That's a Hall effect sensor in the black widgery, so might match up with various other ign kits, depending on what you can find. Hall-effect triggers were/are very common.
Not to be pedantic but it might well be a magnetic reluctor design rather than a Hall effect device. Rather difficult to tell given how furry it is with rust...
The black box I'm on about is this one - arrowed.
Dunno what it is, but this guy might as he appears to have one the same
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The one on the left looks like it's not been smacked with a nammer. And it should've been.
sweller wrote;
Looks like standard Lucas XJ6 ignition from the 70's. This might help;
Ign modules on following pages.
I got round to taking it off the car - the distributor is marked 43DM6. The amplifier has no markings or other connections (it has a two blade plug which goes to the distributor).
I have no specific knowledge of that system, but is there any reason not to assume it will work, or are you unsure of what wires to hook up, etc?
I'm not sure of the wiring. It has two wires between the box and the distributor and two wires from the box with female spade connectors - that look just the right length to reach the coil.
I don't know where it gets its live feed from - or if its positive or negative earth.
That clarifies your situation- if not what goes where.
I) Take my musings with a large grain of salt- if the magic smoke comes out don't blame me- IIWY I would wait until someone who knows comes along to give chapter and verse based on having one like it.
II) The two wires between the distributor and the box- polarity is almost certainly a "don't care", and if it does, it won't hurt anything if it's hooked up backward. This is based on my educated guess that the pickup is a magnetic reluctor design (permanent magnet + coil, magnetic circuit make & break via star wheel), so no Hall Effect active circuit (usually you would need three wires for that, hence polarity is not critical to avoid damage, but as always, refer to Note I.
Whether the system is negative or positive earth, have you any idea of what donor car it came from? If it was originally a later model negative earth car the odds of anyone having switched back to positive earth are damned low. But nutters abound and anything's possible.
III) It needs an earth connection, a power (whether that be + or -) and a connection to the coil. So it will indeed get the first two from the coil, which will have one side connected to the battery feed from the ignition switch (possibly through a ballast resistor, but most likely not needed anymore for this setup). The other wire to the coil will be a singleton, through which the ignition box provides the return path to the battery for the primary circuit. The earth connection no doubt comes via the case. Getting this polarity wrong almost certainly will fry the unit, so guessing is a high-risk strategy.
Good luck.
PS I switched my '65 (or was it the '64) MGB from positive earth to negative, when I fitted a modern alternator in place of the weedy original generator, the only affected polarity sensitive piece on the car was the tachometer drive circuit, which I gutted and replaced with a 555 timer IC PWM circuit of my own design.
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