HHC 857N - 1975 Sprint or why did I touch that?!

[geeksteve]

The Megajolt does use the Ford wasted spark coilpack and EDIS module. On it's own the EDIS will run at a set 10° BTDC, so it needs a controller to do the funky stuff, such as MAP sensing, and engine speed advance and adjustment etc. My own opinion is that the Megajolt has become very overpriced, maybe because I can remember the DIY kits going for £50. I've got a complete VW/Bosch 16v Digifant 3 system in my box of bits, curves and mapping would be ever so slight wrong though, as would be the missing fuel injection! The Megajolt is now around £125, but add in the trigger wheel, EDIS module etc and you're looking at around £350. Annoyingly I seem to have kept a Ford coilpack, but forgot to hang on to the EDIS module itself when I took out a Mondeo 2L engine and scrapped the car for my kit car project that shall remain unmentioned. (psst, wanna buy a chassis?!)

If anyone is doing an EDIS setup I have an EDIS-4 module, coil pack (crack on a socket but still ok), HT leads, crank sensor and some loom going spare..

Steve

[Mad Mart]

I had a look at my electronic ignition and both wires are connected to either side of the coil. I've just been out to mine and I was getting just under 12v at the +ve side of the coil with the ignition switched on so it looks like my ballast has been bypassed and I'm running a 12v coil.

Connect your multimeter to the +ve & -ve terminals of the coil and measure the resistance. If it's 3ohms then it will be a 12V coil. If it's 1.5ohms then it will be what they call a 6V coil.

[Toledo Man]

Only just seen your reply so I'll take a resistance measurement when I get home from work.

[Jon Tilson]

Nope....

If you look at coil plus with a meter and the points are open then you are looking at battery volts into an
open circuit....

You can only tell in situ with a resistance meter as Mart says...

Or short coil minus to earth ( simulate points closed) and measure at coil + if you dont have a good ohm meter....

Jonners

[Toledo Man]

Jonners, I'm not on points. I've just measured the resistance across the terminals of the coil (ignition off) and I got 4.7 ohms on my digital multimeter.

[Mad Mart]

Did you disconnect the terminals first Dave?

[Toledo Man]

I just took a measurement across the terminals.

[Mad Mart]

You need to disconnect the leads to the coil is what I meant, as though it were out of the car.

[Toledo Man]

I've just been out to the car and with everything disconnected I got 3.9 ohms.

[Mad Mart]

Before you took the measurement did you zero out your multimeter? You need to touch the two probes together and check the display. It may be showing a few ohms as there will be resistance in the MM and the leads. Some MMs have a zero button but if yours doesn't then just subtract that figure from your measured figure. But it looks like you have a 12V coil.

[Toledo Man]

I didn't think about the multimeter's internal resistance. I'm getting 1 ohm with the probes touching so I do indeed have a 12v coil.

Sorry to hijack your thread Raf.

[Galileo]

Hey, it's all good with me!

[Dolly-Dimple]

Really loving this car, wishing you all the very best with it

Thanks Russell, appreciate you saying that.

Raf.

Very welcome mate, its a cracking car. Hows it coming along. Hope you are well?

Kind Regards

Russell.

[Galileo]

Funny that you should ask Russell, but I have been doing a little tinkering! Minor stuff though, managed to find my 14mm Coloutune (to fit the 10mm holes according to Haynes, one of them is not strictly telling the truth!) so I could set the carbs up correctly, which worked a treat, yellow is now blue. Wondering now if my gas analyzer was suffering from a decade of storage considering I could not set the mixture with it. Together with the timing now set correctly, the car idles nicely at 700rpm without hunting, and has a lot more bottom end torque as it pulls away nicely too.

As is becoming the norm it would seem, it's not all rainbows and butterflies here as it still does not like the idea of revving past the 4k mark much at all, which also comes along with a misfire which seems to carry on for a bit even after slowing down, gradually becoming less frequent. I thought the old 6v coil was the likely culprit, but the 12v Viper dry coil (yes, it's not on the ballast wire) doesn't seem to have helped at all. The points are quite pitted, so nipped into the MG Owners Club HQ in nearby Swavesey village for a new set had me coming away with a wiping contact set, my mistake for not checking.

So at least I have a car that's very well behaved as long as I don't go past 60mph, by which stage the engine and exhaust noise transmitted by the rock hard mounting become so annoying that you realise that you didn't fancy 70mph much anyway. Speaking of the gearbox mount, a visit to the local motor factors and a browse through their mounting stock has come up with a Volvo mount that looks potentially as useful as the Sierra alternative. If I find time and some dry weather I'll give it a go and report back.

[Galileo]

As it's starting to get colder I thought that this weekend would be a good time to flush the system, fit the new set of hoses I bought a month back and fill with fresh antifreeze.

I half expected there to be no thermostat in it as the temperature has struggled to even hit the first line on the gauge from cold now that we have run into some cooler weather, but no, there it was sat in it's cradle, blinking in the daylight when I uncorked it. I'm used to cars having a marked normal position, or centigrade markings, and the handbook is of no use in finding out what the temperature gauge should read, merely stating that if the pointer moves up quickly then one is to get ones mechanic to attend to it at once. Time to go old school I thought, and stuck a pan of water on the stove with a steamed milk thermometer (it's all I had!) and thermostat dangled in it. Now the stat is marked 82°c, but it was already starting to open long before that temperature arrived at around 60°c, time to raid the spare parts bin known as my spare engine and that one waited until 80°c and then started to open, that'll do.

The filler hole in the thermostat housing had a bolt in it rather than the big brass plug, which was odd. I'll never be able to fill it up via the small bolt hole so took the bolt out and there appeared to be a plastic insert that the bolt went into. Off to the spare parts bin again but sadly I was let down for once, as the expansion tank connector had been snapped off at some point. Back to the old one and I took a gamble and hacksawed through the plastic and managed to get it all out, though cleaning up the threads was an effort without a tap, but I was rewarded by the brass filler from the spare going in like a charm.

After what seemed like hours of emptying, filling, idling, emptying, filling, flushing etc. that is involved with the Holts two pack Radflush, I put on all the new hoses with new stainless steel clips and started to put the thermostat housing back on for the last time today, all ready to fill up with antifreeze and congratulate myself on another job out of the way and for once without a hitch, when the last bolt sheared in half...