The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

I was at a car-club event yesterday and in the rather good flea-market I found these spark-plug diagnostic tools.
The idea is that you put them in series with the spark-plug leads and each spark is then visible as a bright red flash. No flash = no spark.
I've not seen this done before so its an excellent idea.
I've tried one out and even in sunshine it worked well.
They seem to be made by Sparkrite who do other useful bits of kit.
Four of them for £7 is good value.
Tony.

Who are you going to get to hang under the bonnet while you check for misfire under load Tony

Tony

_________________
Membership 2014047

There was a product called 'Colourtune' years ago, where the colour of the flash diagnosed the condition, but again, fine on an 1850, useless on a Sprint.

The downside is it doesn't test the plug; a few years ago I had a car that had been laid up for 12 years that just wouldn't start. I cleaned and gapped the plugs, had tested for a healthy spark at the end of the lead, done all the other checks, but completely overlooked the fact that all four plugs were completely dead!

I have found that the spark diagnostic tool and a colour tune or two, one for each pair of cylinders works well on a 1500.

Tony, those things are great, I also have a set of 4. Helped to diagnose a faulty electronic ignition on my 1850, all 4 behaved as expected on start-up but as the engine (and everything else) got very hot the 4 indicators started doing random things. It was the fried electronic ignition causing the random events.
So get some. Use them. Record them. You now have a datum point. I got mine from Machine Mart ages ago.

I got a set of 4 among the parts haul I got from Steve W. so I decided to keep them for myself. Very useful for diagnosing ignition problems.

_________________
Toledo Man

West Yorkshire Area Organiser & forum moderator
Meetings take place on the first Wednesday of the month at 8.00pm at The Old Brickworks, Wakefield Road, Drighlington, Bradford, BD11 1EA
****Meetings are currently on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic****
1972 Dolomite 1850 auto (NYE 751L - Waiting for me to give it some love)
2008 Citroën C4 Grand Picasso 2.0 HDi Exclusive (MA08 WCL - the workhorse)
1995 BMW E36 318i (M265 PNC - Project Bimmer, the 2nd car)
1991 Toyota Celica GT (J481 ONB - the current project car)
Former stable of SAY 414M (1974 Toledo), GRH 244D (1966 1300fwd), CDB 324L (1973 1500fwd), GGN 573J (1971 1500fwd), DCP 625S (1977 Dolomite 1300) & LCG 367N (1975 Dolomite Sprint) plus 5 Acclaims and that's just the Triumphs!

Check my blog at http://triumphtoledo.blogspot.com
My YouTube Channel with a bit of Dolomite content.

"There is only one way to avoid criticsm: Do nothing, say nothing and BE nothing." Aristotle

They have been around for years and even Halfords still sell them although they are not cheap to buy new.
As for Colortune they can be used on the Sprint using the extension probe.

_________________
Some people are like Slinky's, they serve no real purpose in life but bring a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.