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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-GB link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>You may recall me bleating about my timing light, how it was playing up and then died. Also poor running and lack of power under load around 3,500 rpm.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Well, just for your info and so you don’t make the same mistake(s)…<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The problem was the coil all along. I didn’t diagnose it because I put it down to timing which I couldn’t fix because the light wouldn’t work. Chicken and egg….<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Also, I’d swapped back from Webers to SUs which should have worked straight out of the box as I hadn’t changed any settings…but they were suspects too.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Also the new harmonic balancer and timing chain etcetc…had I made a cock of that?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>So, the little thread on ohms the other day got me thinking. My coil was 12 years old so not in its first flush of youth but 12 isn’t too old for a coil….But, but not expensive.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>And the engine started first time, every time and there was a good spark so coil wasn’t really on the list.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>But, the new light was beginning to show the same symptoms as the old one. Intermittent failure or just no light at all. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Anyhow, I ordered a new coil and tested the old one. Wrong way round, but I didn’t have a decent spare so it didn’t hurt too much.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>The new coil fixed everything! Maddening in a way, to have it so obvious in retrospect but invisible (to me) at the time.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>And the old timing light, a decent Mack, works 100% with the new coil. So now I’ve got a spare timing light. A Gunson Professional(?) something or other which doesn’t work half as well as the old Mack even though it has a number of clever functions.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Moral of the long story….don’t trust your coil even when it seems to be OK.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Enough,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Simon<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>