[DeTomaso] more evidence I'm a not much of a mechanic...

[Ken Green]

What would happen if you attach an inductive timing light to each wire?  It seems like it would require some level of current passing through the wire for the timing light to detect the current and fire?  I guess the question is what the minimum level is.
 
Do people still hook scopes up to engines to see how they are firing? 
 
Ken

--- On Fri, 2/19/10, Julian Kift <julian_kift at hotmail.com> wrote:


From: Julian Kift <julian_kift at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] more evidence I'm a not much of a mechanic...
To: chrisvkimball at msn.com, asajay at asajay.com, "De Tomaso List" <detomaso at realbig.com>
Date: Friday, February 19, 2010, 9:33 PM



I fail to see the benefit of pulling a plug wire and testing it to ground as that's no different than the gizmo that detects current in the wire (albeit the gizmo is a lot safer for you and your MSD). If the problem is not the electronic ignition it's just gonna tell you all 8 wires are fine. Even if you pull a plug and ground it to see if it sparks or not, that is also no guarantee it is not faulty as I have known plugs that look good and are failing under compression.



IMHO I'd buy a set of 8 plugs and swap them all out, what are they about $3 ea.



Good luck,

Julian

> From: chrisvkimball at msn.com
> To: asajay at asajay.com; detomaso at realbig.com
> Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:40:54 -0800
> Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] more evidence I'm a not much of a mechanic...
> 
> 
> That's exactly right--I don't want to pull the plugs since that's such a royal pain in the rear. If I did pull a plug, it would be no problem, since then the ground would be easy; the plug casing grounded with the wire still hooked up would simply let me see the spark plug sparking its little heart out...
> 
> The problem with the signal sensor you mention is that it only shows the power, not whether or not the plug is firing. I'm pretty sure the electronic ignition is not the problem. Once I figure out which cylinder it is, then I can pull the corresponding plug and see what it looks like.
> 
> It seems as if I just take off a plug wire and make sure it doesn't touch anything, that shouldn't hurt anything, should it?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Chris
> 
> 
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Chris
> 
> > Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:30:02 -0800
> > From: asajay at asajay.com
> > To: detomaso at realbig.com
> > Subject: Re: [DeTomaso] more evidence I'm a not much of a mechanic...
> > 
> > Jack, the trouble is he doesn't want to pull the -plug-, just the 
> > wire. I'm not sure how I'd do that with an MSD.
> > 
> > My dad used to have this cool little gizmo. It looked like a pen but 
> > was actually a spark detector. You held it next to the plug wire and it 
> > would flash in time with the energy going to the plug. Something like 
> > this would at least tell you there is spark going to each plug.
> > 
> > Have you tired pulling the plugs to inspect them? Sometimes just 
> > looking at the plugs will tell you what's going on.
> > 
> > Asa Jay
> > 
> > Asa Jay Laughton, MSgt, USAFR, Retired
> > & Shelley Marie
> > Spokane, WA
> > ****************************** 
> > http://www.asajay.com *** http://www.teampanteraracing.com
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > JDeRyke at aol.com wrote:
> > > In a message dated 2/19/10 6:28:19 PM, chrisvkimball at msn.com writes:
> > >
> > > 
> > >> when you say I should run the spark plug wire to ground, do you mean that 
> > >> once I remove the wire from the plug I should actually run the spark plug 
> > >> wire directly to ground, and that won't damage anything? 
> > >>
> > >> 
> > > Attach a ground wire with an alligator clip to the ground lug on the plug 
> > > base so the plug works normally but is outside the engine. Otherwise, the 
> > > built-up energy in the MSD and coil will have no place to go .... until it 
> > > punches a hole in a circuit board to ground inside the box. Good luck- J DeRyke
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