Nolan capacitor of the coil was usually there for radio interference
suppression. I remember having to fit them to cars when I fitted a radio many
years ago. Mind you it may not be needed for electric ignition sinsce there are
no points.
But saying that, I have one on my 76 which has always had some form of
electronic ignition (latest is the Pertronics Ignitor, previously Allison and I
assume Lucas originally). Cap on mine is a blue cylinder with one terminal
being a plate bolted under the coil mounting. Value I believe is 1 micro Farad.
If the round thingy is on the +ve side of the coil you could check the voltage
at either side. Sounds like the ballast resistor, but a 1980 model had them as
part of the wiring harness.
Alan
Original Message:
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From: Nolan Penney npenney@mde.state.md.us
Date: Mon, 06 Nov 2000 09:58:22 -0500
Subject: Lucas (GM HEI) ignition questions
I'm quite thrilled to discover yes indeed, my 1980 Spitifres Lucas ignition box
does contain a GM HEI ignition module. That's terrific because those modules
work real well, and are cheap.
Now the questions.
I have a capaciter on one leg to the coil (don't remember which), and a round
thingie on the other, that might be a resistor actually, though it looks like a
caciter. All the wiring diagrams I've seen of GM HEI systems have no do-dads
wired into them. Why on earth would Lucas have them wired in? I can
understand a resistor if the coil is a step down type, and indeed if that round
thingie is actually a resistor. But what about the capaciter? I don't have
points, so I don't see why I need a capaciter. Did Lucas simply make this more
complex then it needs to be? Since I've got a spare MSD coil, I'll probably
just drop the do-dads out of the circuit completely when I re-do it.
I find it interesting also how poorly assembled the Lucas unit is. No good
thermal conduction (I've got a nice clean one to examine also), but lots of
water entry. That's one way to take a great system and make sure it performs
poorly, in proper Lucas tradition. With a little work, and a better coil, the
late Lucas/HEI system should be the cats meow when it comes to performance.
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