Electronic Ignition

Hi Guys,

I was looking into electronic ignition. Upon researching I found there are two main companies, Accuspark and Powerspark.

Firstly can anyone tell me if they have had experience with these electronic ignition kits? Are they easily installed?

Secondly are they worth installing?

Finally which brand would you go for?

Thanks for the replies in advance!

Cheers,

Jeevs

Anyone?

Jeevs

Might be worth flinging rubjonny a PM mate re this. He is the wiring/eletrical guru

http://vwgolfmk1.org.uk/forum/index.php?page=topicview&id=big-block-carb-engines_2%2Fto-buy-or-not-to-buy_3#post_1294678

I've gone for the Accuspark as there website and info looked better so don't really know the difference if any??????
Hopefully fitting it this weekend so will let you know….

Well had a look today and even more confussed than before… I'm not great with car electrics
Done some tests as it says in the instrutions
Tested the coil getting 1.6 Ohms and just above 1/2 the voltage of the battery so I think that means I have a Ballast coil (what ever that means) ?
I cant see a Ballast resistor anywhere (Dont really know what I'm looking for) so not sure where to wire the red lead to. The black wire from the Accuspark goes to the green wire going from the - side of the coil to the dissy (nice and straight forward that one!) where do I put the red wire? Its says wire to the ignition key or the live side of the fuse box (not through a fuse), is the live side of the fuse from the battery to the fuse box? Can anyone please give me a clue/picture of where is best to wire it.
Its a 1.6 carb 1978 FR engine.
Thanks in advance…….

Forgot to add Ive the old style fuse box, bullet type fuses.

you may not have a seperate resistor, instead you have a resistor wire. if you have a purple/white to the coil + then thats your resistor wire.

are the instructions asking for a full 12v feed rather than resistor feed? if so you'll have to look elsewhere for it or replace that resistor wire all the way back to fusebox. the carb has a few ignition lives though they will be fused most likely. the only issue with usign a fused feed though is obv if fuse pops you loose power!

Thanks for the response guys! mark1gls - have you had any luck with this??

Jon, which one would you recommend? and are they worth the upgrade?

Cheers!

well i would prefer to go vw, but the trouble is converting a solid lifter small block isnt so easy as the electronic ignition dizzy on the later 1.3 is a different fitment unfortunately.  I havent got any experience with the aftermarket kits but peeps have had good results from the accuspark going by the thread above!

tbh if it was my car id fit a 1.4 16v lump using full oem EFI, but thats just me

Well I've sort of got it to work, but I can't seem to find 12v at the back of the fuse box with the ignition on, there is lots spares live without the ignition on, if I plug into G7 (rear wiper) it works sort of but difficult to start as it must not work until you stop cranking over the engine, I thought I found one but I was reading the muitle meter wrong and getting 1.2v!
So where can I find 12v with the ignition on position 2 and not power when its off?
(series 1 fuse box)

G/3 is a coil live feed, if there is a wire in there already just tap into it with a double spade or someting

Thanks for the help so far, at the moment I've tapped into the black ignition wire, E2 near the fuse box, am I better off connecting to G3? E2 works but just want to make sure I'm not going to end in a ball of flames!

any decent ign live feed will do you, only issue with e/2 is its in the interior loom which makes it harder to remove the engien loom in future, unless you fit a plug on it

Thanks for that rubjonny, I'll do it properly later today and use G/3 and update on fitting and running the accuspark, they make it look so simple on the youtube video……
So far with the car ticking over it does seem a little bit smoother and I've only driven up the road for 1/2 miles to adjust the timing a little as I forgot to get my timing light and its at my parents house 30 miles away!

I've been driving the car for the last couple of days and it still seems to be working, I did get a timing light to check the timing, when I set it to DTC the car has no power and bogs down when pulling away, if I advance the timing it runs a lot better so some thing for me to have a proper look over the weekend. Not really had change to give it a good blast yet as I live about 6 miles from where Glastonbury festive is so the roads have been rather busy!

yeah the ignition timing is usually set a few degrees BTDC, the spec depends on the engine. but really you can just add a bit, drive it and keep going till it pinks then back off a touch

mark1gls - Is it worth the upgrade and have you felt any difference??

Is it worth the money?
I always set my points using a dwell meter so they where spot on as I found with feeler guages it seemed right then put the dwell on and they are slightly off, as for electrionc ignition they will be right, if you just use feeler guages you might notice more improvment.
I've noticed a smoother tick over and very slightly easier starting, cant say I've noticed any improvement in performance.
Fitting them to the dissy was easy its just wiring them up that was the problem.

Black wire to the - side of coil, I used the green wire fitted already but that has a female connector at the dissy end, so does the Accuspark, I fitted a male connector to the Accuspark.

Red wire to a ignition feed, I took rubjonny advice and fitted it to G/3, I had to fitt a new wire from G/3 into the engine bay to near the Accuspark, there was a plug near the end of a wire going to G/3 but something else was wired in there on mine, there was 2 wires coming out so I to tapped into the other wire.


G/3

Connector on one of the two wires from G/3


I use a rotor arm with a rev limiter on it and found it hit the dissy cap when on so had to sand a little of the rotor arm, (you can just see it on photo).
You also can't fit the plastic cover over the old points as the Accuspark is taller.

Rotor arm

Trying to fit cover, you can see how much gap there is.


I've only used it for a week so time will tell if its worth the money.

Hi mark1gls,

Picked up on your thread as I'm fitting an Accuspark to my '78 Series 1 and I need to take a feed from the fusebox but I'm uncertain where G/3 is, just to confirm is the feed on the attached photo the correct one (it becomes live when the ignition is turned on).

Many thanks


 

test it with a multimeter to be sure, its the only ignition live spade in that group so you cant miss it

pic of the rear of the fusebox here near the bottom:
http://www.clubgti.com/showthread.php?219775

Yes that looks right, 3rd one in from the end nearest to the driver on the top row if like me you have the early fuse box with the bullet type fuses NOT the blade fuses.
If you need anymore pictures etc let me know.