spark of life?

Took the beast out for its first drive yesterday after the fuel line incident and though i drove gently she felt wicked, brakes were a bit crap but as the miles started to flow by they slowly began to return to normal ( slightly crap ). The handling after puttng air in the tyres was great, engine great....and.......then...cruising at 60mph a slight jolt and nothing engine dead, rolled into a layby on dead engine.. Dammit ran out of fuel?.....3 gals later......turning, turning...still nothing ......AA called,super power to battery.....turning,turning....still nothing check spark to spark plugs.....nothing!!!. towed home...gutted.

What do i do guys? where do i start? as an aside i noticed that the indicators have stopped working now, but worked on the 15 mile journey before the stop. Help please,please,please. John

Atmo or Turbo?

Probably TDC sensor if no spark .Not a major job , just awkward to get at unless you have a womans hands .

EDIT ...............opps yes forget that .Atmo innit?

Probably TDC sensor

Careful Lee, my understanding is that the TDC sensor plays no part in the ign cct on the atmo. Just goes to the diagnostic socket. Pulses for the spark come from distributors spinning rotor passing coils in its base. If it is in fact an atmo, my first check would be 12 v on one side of the coil with ign on. I would also check R167 the 12 pin connector alongside the coil/ign unit . I have had trouble with that one in the past. Specificely pins 1.2.3. Hope this helps, if not come back.

Yes I know ..
Thats why I said EDIT-forget it-Atmo innit

Start with the simples. Check the main HT lead and dizzy cap first, could just be rotor arm/cap...Then check power to the coil.

If you have no spark it's nearly always the connectors on the ballast resistors and coil, assuming the ignition switch and power to the coil is working. Does the rev counter twitch when you crank?

Re-crimp and tidy them up first before looking at anything more obvious. It's worth doing HT stuff if you haven't already but they don't just conk out completely when on their way out.

I have spare ignition amps (the grey box). On the DeLorean, they live inside the car and I''ve never seen or heard of one failing.

Re-crimp and tidy them up first before looking at anything more obvious. It's worth doing HT stuff if you haven't already but they don't just conk out completely when on their way out.

Rotor arm would, and it takes 2 secs to flip off the dizzy cap.

[quote="clee"]... just awkward to get at unless you have a womans hands .

quote]

I keep those of the 2nd wife in a jar by the bed for just such occasions.

... just awkward to get at unless you have a womans hands .

quote]

I keep those of the 2nd wife in a jar by the bed for just such occasions.

Use them for anything else

Rotor arm would, and it takes 2 secs to flip off the dizzy cap.

I have never seen a DeLorean that has totally conked out with ne'er a cough fixed by changing the cap and rotor. Lost count of the number of times I've seen one conk out (or refuse to start after working fine) because of ballast resistor or coil connections.

Rotor arm would, and it takes 2 secs to flip off the dizzy cap.

I have never seen a DeLorean that has totally conked out with ne'er a cough fixed by changing the cap and rotor. Lost count of the number of times I've seen one conk out (or refuse to start after working fine) because of ballast resistor or coil connections.

I have, and also with water in the cap, won't start at all.

Always advise the simplest and easiest things first, for all you know he has no electrical experience, but looking at a damaged rotor arm tip, or if the king lead end has broken or not even connected is easy for anybody.

Surely the best approach to this type of fault, is to try and determin what part of the cct the fault lies in, before pulling things appart. The danger of doing this, is that if it is an intermittent fault, you run the risk of moving something that cures the intermittent fault, running the risk of it happening again, whereas if you check the voltage at the coil as I suggested, you can tell, without disturbing anything, weither the fault is in the primary cct (12volt) or in the secondary cct (spark generation, and distribution) Having detirmined that, then you look for the fault in that part of the cct, without disturbing the other part, which should be without fault. The basic principal is, do not disturb anything until you know what part of the cct is faulty. This is the approach I would strongly recommend. Comments please.

John

Surely the best approach to this type of fault, is to try and determin what part of the cct the fault lies in, before pulling things appart. The danger of doing this, is that if it is an intermittent fault, you run the risk of moving something that cures the intermittent fault, running the risk of it happening again, whereas if you check the voltage at the coil as I suggested, you can tell, without disturbing anything, weither the fault is in the primary cct (12volt) or in the secondary cct (spark generation, and distribution) Having detirmined that, then you look for the fault in that part of the cct, without disturbing the other part, which should be without fault. The basic principal is, do not disturb anything until you know what part of the cct is faulty. This is the approach I would strongly recommend. Comments please.

John

Yep

Well if he has no spark at all plugs, then its at the source, so either cap, rotor, king lead, coil, or supply to coil etc...

King lead is the easiest to check, then cap and rotor, then coil and power.

Well if he has no spark at all plugs, then its at the source, so either cap, rotor, king lead, coil, or supply to coil etc...

King lead is the easiest to check, then cap and rotor, then coil and power.

Sorry David, surely that is the wrong way round. There is no point in checking the secondary cct, until you are sure there is power (12v) supplying the primary cct. I agree with a good look around first, in case there is anything obvious, but I assume the AA man did that, but dont disturb anything until you know what part of the cct is at fault. You say in your quote "then its at the source" I would take the source as being the battery. After all the spark is generated from 12v, but you could be right with the actual fault, but I always like to know exactally what the fault was, and not run the risk of clearing it by poking around without putting a marker down as to where the fault lies first.

John