Keeping Your Ignition Spark In The Right Place

[rob83ke70]

My heap of junk suzuki appears to be losing spark to ground inside the distributor cap intermittantly. I think it has been doing this for some time, you drive it, and every so often it misses a beat, or has a "hiccup". It deteriorated badly on the weekend, and the problem was traced to an open circuit high tension lead. The high tension leads are less than 2 years and 20,000km old! Anyway, the rest of the leads appear ok with a resistance of 1.5k ohms to 3.0k ohms, and I have now replaced the lead with a bright red new one.... when the lead died, the spark for that cylinder was jumping to ground on the distributor body.

 

I have replaced the distributor cap (twice now) and rotor, and the coil is maybe 30-40000 km old (brand new genuine part). the plugs are bp5es with a 0.8mm gap, brand new.

 

The car still has its "hiccup" problem - I'm fairly sure the spark is jumping to ground inside the distributor cap - not as often as it used to, but still doing it. Any ideas as to why or how to fix it? body deadener on the distributor cap? silicone grease on the distributor cap? maybe I need to replace the plastic cover under the rotor button? it *looks* ok I think?

 

Don't say buy a new car - I know its not a toyota but I've spent a bit of money and effort on it and want to keep it until I feel it doesn't owe me anything!

 

Robert.

[altezzaclub]

Replace the next-highest resistance lead! Use the black lead if that worked OK. If that solves it throw the blue leads away and tell us what brand they were!

 

You could try a spray of body deadener or WD40, which will increase the insulation on the cap, but it shouldn't need that. You would just be treating the symptom, not solving the problem.

[rob83ke70]

think they were eagles.... junk.

 

the one I put on was an emo lead - it had FML written on it.

 

I don't think that 3000 ohms is excessive for how long they were. I'll go over them again tomorrow.

 

Robert.

[Raven]

LOL, emo lead...

 

Get a set of NGK leads.

 

Bosch and Eagle are poo :)

[TRD ke70]

I'd just replace all the leads, other wise you'll just chase the problem around the leads until you've replaced all of them anyhow.

 

 

 

NGK FTW!!!

[rob83ke70]

so frustrating not being able to see exactly where/what the problem is. When the lead went I could hear the spark and see a little bit of it, but now it does it when you drive the car (the original problem with the car actually) and the symptom appears the same (just not as bad or regular)

 

Apparently champion leads are good - but the fella who told me that also told me a lot of bullshit too lol.

 

Robert.

[Trev]

Clean out any oil that is in the dizzy also, I normally do this with brake clean and then doing a spray of servisol electrical clean and lube.

[rob83ke70]

it looked pretty clean and dry - the innards are covered with a plastic cap, and the rotor and high tension cap are new....

 

Robert.

[Trev]

it looked pretty clean and dry - the innards are covered with a plastic cap, and the rotor and high tension cap are new....

 

Robert.

 

ok, I am meant to be rebuilding my dizzy but I am a bit slack at the moment, when the dizzy has oil in it the car hesitates to start, just thought you might of have had the same thing but at running speeds.

[Taz_Rx]

I'd just replace all the leads, other wise you'll just chase the problem around the leads until you've replaced all of them anyhow.

 

 

 

NGK FTW!!!

 

+1, just change all the leads. Some service books say to replace the spark plug leads every second time you change the plugs.

 

Have you also replaced or re-set your points? They could be closed up a bit too much.

[Felix]

Does it run a crank angle sensor?

 

If so maybe check the rotor phasing.

[rob83ke70]

electronic ignition - gm specs for the geo metro are under 30k ohms per lead is good. as far as i know its a conventional dizzy with mech advance weights and a vac diaphragm. i smeared insulating compound around the base on the dust cover etc too.

 

still has mad flat spot and i still don't know what it is.

 

Robert.

[19914afc]

air leak?

my old ae92 with a 4afc had 3 or 4 vacuum lines split and just went to drive it one day and it started fine but coughed and sputtered the whole way to work, then I replaced all the vacuum lines and it ran fine again.

[rob83ke70]

i'm reasonably convinced that its still electrical. it has a flat spot - not consistent with throttle angle, more consistent with load, and on the highway it sometimes cuts and dies for a few seconds before coming good again - usually when overtaking or driving up hills or both so you lose valuable momentum.

 

I *think* there is a problem with either the signal going to the coil (or maybe timing advance?) or with the coil sending spark to the distributor.

 

vac lines are all good - been over them a thousand times.

 

Robert.

[ke70dave]

yeah doesnt sound like an air leak or anything.

 

whats the fuel pump like? is it a mechanical device or an electric item? maybe its stuffed and it can't keep up on high loads or something.

 

not a blocked fuel filter or something silly?

 

grounding on the coil playing up?

 

given the electronic ignition dizzy i wouldnt expect it to give any troubles..

 

i can't stand intermitent problems!