Keep a spare module with you...
- Silverbullet
- Senior Member
- Posts: 2870
- Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2010 6:20 pm
- Location: Adelaide
Keep a spare module with you...
Man I've had some day today First of all the traffic was so bad I considered getting out and walking (I am working on the fitness to bike it soon) Then not 2 days after I was telling someone (who asked about my ute) that it's been really reliable, never breaks down...well guess what happened this morning!
Was going round a left hand bend onto a busy main road, went to give it some gas to get moving, engine died Had enough momentum to ditch it into the kerb, just out of the way of the turning traffic. Trying to re-start, engine was dead as a door nail, not even a hint of firing again. After 5 minutes of swearing, shouting, cranking, head-banging...I calmed down enough to realize I was 10 feet away from a petrol station - put it in 1st and used the starter motor to limp up the driveway, pushed it into an empty parking spot. Asked the servo staff if I could leave it there for the day and organized a tow truck for 4PM, and I was a little late for work.
During the day I had time to think it over, what could cause it to die so suddenly and terminally? I bet it's the ignition module that came in that rebuilt Mexican dizzy. I'd read horror stories before about these things dying suddenly, with no hope of starting again. So I was back at the car by 4, got a phone call to say the guy was 1/2 hour away...an hour later he rolls up And I got home in a tow truck. 2 minutes to dig out my old dizzy, extract the (working?) Hitachi ignition module, pop it in place of the old (Mexican) no-name no-marking module, engine fired on the first crank Think I'm going to have to buy another as spare, put together a small tool box to keep in the car and throw the spare module in there too.
Out of the few times this ute or my old wagon has let me down and left me stranded, pretty much every time it has been ignition related, it will be sweet to get that EDIS working on the wagon and not have to live with this crap anymore. I'm convinced every factory ignition option for the EA81 is pure un-reliable garbage.
Anyway, all good for now. But another funny thing that happened today; while I was standing by the car in the servo waiting for the towie, another car rolls up in the spot next to me...broken down! They called the RAA, who I don't bother with anymore going by my last experience with them. I thought it was funny having 2 broken down cars sitting there, I jokingly said (with a chuckle) to the RAA guy "Don't spose you could look at mine while you're here?"
...
Should have seen the look on his face! could have turned milk bad. He didn't say a word, looked at me like I was an alien, and stuck his head under the other bonnet. Absolutely no sense of humor, I can only laugh when people react like this
Long story short, keep a spare module !!! either in the car or in the shed, they DO go bad.
Was going round a left hand bend onto a busy main road, went to give it some gas to get moving, engine died Had enough momentum to ditch it into the kerb, just out of the way of the turning traffic. Trying to re-start, engine was dead as a door nail, not even a hint of firing again. After 5 minutes of swearing, shouting, cranking, head-banging...I calmed down enough to realize I was 10 feet away from a petrol station - put it in 1st and used the starter motor to limp up the driveway, pushed it into an empty parking spot. Asked the servo staff if I could leave it there for the day and organized a tow truck for 4PM, and I was a little late for work.
During the day I had time to think it over, what could cause it to die so suddenly and terminally? I bet it's the ignition module that came in that rebuilt Mexican dizzy. I'd read horror stories before about these things dying suddenly, with no hope of starting again. So I was back at the car by 4, got a phone call to say the guy was 1/2 hour away...an hour later he rolls up And I got home in a tow truck. 2 minutes to dig out my old dizzy, extract the (working?) Hitachi ignition module, pop it in place of the old (Mexican) no-name no-marking module, engine fired on the first crank Think I'm going to have to buy another as spare, put together a small tool box to keep in the car and throw the spare module in there too.
Out of the few times this ute or my old wagon has let me down and left me stranded, pretty much every time it has been ignition related, it will be sweet to get that EDIS working on the wagon and not have to live with this crap anymore. I'm convinced every factory ignition option for the EA81 is pure un-reliable garbage.
Anyway, all good for now. But another funny thing that happened today; while I was standing by the car in the servo waiting for the towie, another car rolls up in the spot next to me...broken down! They called the RAA, who I don't bother with anymore going by my last experience with them. I thought it was funny having 2 broken down cars sitting there, I jokingly said (with a chuckle) to the RAA guy "Don't spose you could look at mine while you're here?"
...
Should have seen the look on his face! could have turned milk bad. He didn't say a word, looked at me like I was an alien, and stuck his head under the other bonnet. Absolutely no sense of humor, I can only laugh when people react like this
Long story short, keep a spare module !!! either in the car or in the shed, they DO go bad.
Will it ever end!?
-EA81 TWIN CARB!!!!
-L series 5 speed
-Custom paint job
-2" lift
-Full custom re-wire
-L series front end
-EA81 TWIN CARB!!!!
-L series 5 speed
-Custom paint job
-2" lift
-Full custom re-wire
-L series front end
- Loyale 2.7 Turbo
- Junior Member
- Posts: 84
- Joined: Mon May 04, 2009 4:50 pm
- Location: French Harbour, Roatán. Honduras
- Contact:
Yes, that is Good Advice.Silverbullet wrote:... Long story short, keep a spare module !!! either in the car or in the shed, they DO go bad.
I learned it on the Hard way, see:
~► http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/top ... on-module/
By the way, there were Two different options for ignition / distributor on the EA81 and EA82 engines, at least for the LADM (Latin American Domestic Market), they sold the Carbureted 4WD models with the Hitachi (Craptachi) Distributor, and the 2WD (FWD only) Models, with the Nippon-Denso Distributor.
I prefer the Nippon-Denso, because it doesn't need screws for the Cap, nor the Lousy screw to hold the Rotor in place (lousy design, in my opinion), also the Nippon-Denso has a Faster acceleration advance curve, than the Hitachi counterpart... and somehow is Reliable.
May I ask you, what is the Meaning of EDIS?
Kind Regards.
- TOONGA
- Elder Member
- Posts: 5335
- Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 10:15 am
- Location: Australind closer to where they divided by zero
- Contact:
Yes I have a spare module for my escort distributor in the garage somewhere along with a dizzy cap and rotor button. After reading this i think I will dig them out.
Jesek good to see you here in answer to your question.
a nice read on EDIS
http://www.megamanual.com/ms2/EDIS.htm
TOONGA
Jesek good to see you here in answer to your question.
a nice read on EDIS
http://www.megamanual.com/ms2/EDIS.htm
TOONGA
- Silverbullet
- Senior Member
- Posts: 2870
- Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2010 6:20 pm
- Location: Adelaide
Electronic Distributorless Ignition SystemLoyale 2.7 Turbo wrote:
May I ask you, what is the Meaning of EDIS?
Kind Regards.
In a nutshell, a computer controlled ignition system that allows me to delete the distributor. Also programmable via laptop or PC, custom ignition advance timing and ignition mapping. All very good things
Will it ever end!?
-EA81 TWIN CARB!!!!
-L series 5 speed
-Custom paint job
-2" lift
-Full custom re-wire
-L series front end
-EA81 TWIN CARB!!!!
-L series 5 speed
-Custom paint job
-2" lift
-Full custom re-wire
-L series front end
Yeh I've had two fail on me. I did the math and it was cheaper to replace a set of points every time they wear out then replacing those modules so I slapped my old points dizzy back in. I actually pulled mine apart had a look, its the dwell controller/VR to square wave converter circuit thats failing, not the main tranny that cops the flyback spikes. I even made a new circuit and bodged it into the old cavity which got me by for a few days until common sense got the better of me and I stuck the points in.
Regards
Doug
Regards
Doug
- Silverbullet
- Senior Member
- Posts: 2870
- Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2010 6:20 pm
- Location: Adelaide
- El_Freddo
- Master Member
- Posts: 12505
- Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:00 am
- Location: Bridgewater Vic
- Contact:
Yep I've got a spare in both the Brumbys.
These modules are a typical car of you get what you pay for. A d most are as old as the vehicle itself. IMO they're a huge step up on the points system and are much easier to fix when they go wrong, plus they're easy to diagnose when they go wrong as the will typically cough then die...
Cheers
Bennie
These modules are a typical car of you get what you pay for. A d most are as old as the vehicle itself. IMO they're a huge step up on the points system and are much easier to fix when they go wrong, plus they're easy to diagnose when they go wrong as the will typically cough then die...
Cheers
Bennie
My Brumby runs a modified distributor out of my Stanza rally car with the Works Mitsubishi CDI ignition system and I have a full spare system.
This thing makes a bright blue spark so strong it will fire to earth spinning ths dissy by hand on the bench through the full thickness of the old Trading post so about 10mm of paper will not stop the spark finding earth.
A strong spark does wonders for older carby engined cars as so many problems people blame on the carburetor are more often than not actually ignition related, If the spark does not efficiently ignite the mixture then the carburettor will seem to not work correctly so everyone blames the carb when in fact the poor ignition performance is the real culprit.
This thing makes a bright blue spark so strong it will fire to earth spinning ths dissy by hand on the bench through the full thickness of the old Trading post so about 10mm of paper will not stop the spark finding earth.
A strong spark does wonders for older carby engined cars as so many problems people blame on the carburetor are more often than not actually ignition related, If the spark does not efficiently ignite the mixture then the carburettor will seem to not work correctly so everyone blames the carb when in fact the poor ignition performance is the real culprit.