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Re: Question concerning a spitfire

To: british-cars@autox.team.net (British Cars Mailing List)
Subject: Re: Question concerning a spitfire
From: tom@ismdqa.intel.com (Tom Soukup ~)
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 92 11:16:20 PDT
Forwarded message:
>From tom Fri Oct 23 10:08:11 1992
Subject: Re: Question concerning a spitfire
To: jgj@BBN.COM (Joseph Johnson)
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1992 10:08:11 -0700 (PDT)
In-Reply-To: <9210231505.AA10839@hoosier.cs.utah.edu> from "Joseph Johnson" at 
Oct 23, 92 10:51:53 am
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL3]
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> 
> Hello! I am new to this mailing list and am very happy that I found it.  
>Anyway
> I have a 1979 Triumph Spitfire that I bought this summer.  It ran well for the
> first few weeks and then it developed a problem where the engine would stop
> while I was driving it.  Getting it started after that was next to impossible.
> So my first guess was that it was a clogged fuel line or fuel pump, but I had 
>a
> mechanic check it out who said that that was not the problem, but that my
> starter was going.  He also seemed to think that my ignition module was the
> reason for the car's stopping while I was driving it.  Has anyone out there 
>had
> similar problems with Spitfires and do you have any advise, ideas or opinions
> that you would like to share which will be greatly appreciated.  If anyone
> wishes to contact me via e-mail please feel free to do so at my address below.
> Thank you all for listening.
>                                  
>                                  Joseph Johnson
>                                  e-mail: jgj@bbn.com
> 

Joseph,

I recently had the same problem with my '79 Spitfire.  The car would be
running along just fine and then all of a sudden stop.  After a while it
would start again and run for a while before stopping again.  Eventually it
quit completely and would not start at all.  This turned out to be a problem
with the electronic ignition module (as was suggested by several list members).
I replaced the module with an Allison electronic ignition and it started up
right away and has been running fine for several months now.

Installing the new electronic ignition was simple in my case since the
previous owner had already had an after market ignition module installed.
I just needed to remove it and put in the new one.  The instructions for
removing the original Lucas ignition module did not look very complicated
however.

The cost for the ignition module was $99.95 from the Victoria British catalog.


As long as I'm here I also have a question that someone might be able to
answer for me.  When I replaced the electronic ignition, I also put in a
new ignition coil.  The coil came with a new resistor, but my manual says
that I have a resistor built into the wiring harness.  There was nothing
with the coil that says when to use the new resistor although the VB
catalog says not to reuse the old resistor.  Right now I am running with
out the new resistor and the car starts and runs fine.  My question is
should I install the new resistor anyway?  Do I need to rip out the wiring
harness to remove the resistance wire?  Any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks
Tom



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