Panic Stations!

[Sussex Pete]

Do you have an alternative ecu Pete? Any will do to check if the existing is dead

Yeah, got one off a VP. I'll swap it out tomorrow as a test.

[Jeff Turbo]

If you plug a different one in if you think yours is dead, although it won't run property the coil should come to life. If it still doesn't then your turbo ecu might be ok and it's either the coil or rotor arm

[Sussex Pete]

Well the update from todays test, is no change! The other ECU didn't do anything different and the bench test of the new coil didn't provide a spark either. My plan now, is to take my new coil to some local classic motor engineers and see if they can confirm if the new coil is duff or OK. I suppose I'm struggling to pinpoint where my fault is without at least one known good, even though they all should be! So, maybe a step forward tomorrow.

[Doctordiesel77]

Coil starting to look a bit guilty, the bench test should produce a spark even if it didn't get much of a flash on the lt side, at 6,000 rpm it has to produce 200 sparks per second... I'm not sure if ECU puts out a higher voltage, like the old electronic conversions used to, I guess that Jeff will know the answer to that one, but I'd have thought that you'd get a spark of some sort at 12v, if the coil was ok. I did hear a tale (from a motor factors...) that the "conventional" ignition parts (ie points, condensors & coils) that you get now are inferior to the originals, he said they got a fair few warranty returns...

[G Force]

Hi Pete
When you re-connected the earth wire cluster to the chassis, (the cluster that is on the N/S bumper mounting bolts under the battery tray includes the ignition ecu earths) did you clean off the new paint down to bare metal? If not you will need to do that with every chassis earth point. to ensure good earth connection for all the vehicle electrics. With regard to the coil you will need to be on the lowest range setting of a decent digital multi-meter to measure 0.8 ohms between the +&- terminals.
Cheers, Gary

[Jeff Turbo]

Hi Pete
When you re-connected the earth wire cluster to the chassis, (the cluster that is on the N/S bumper mounting bolts under the battery tray includes the ignition ecu earths) did you clean off the new paint down to bare metal? If not you will need to do that with every chassis earth point. to ensure good earth connection for all the vehicle electrics. With regard to the coil you will need to be on the lowest range setting of a decent digital multi-meter to measure 0.8 ohms between the +&- terminals.
Cheers, Gary

Hi Gary, glad you're back as you've been missing for quite a while

[Sussex Pete]

Hi Pete
When you re-connected the earth wire cluster to the chassis, (the cluster that is on the N/S bumper mounting bolts under the battery tray includes the ignition ecu earths) did you clean off the new paint down to bare metal? If not you will need to do that with every chassis earth point. to ensure good earth connection for all the vehicle electrics. With regard to the coil you will need to be on the lowest range setting of a decent digital multi-meter to measure 0.8 ohms between the +&- terminals.
Cheers, Gary

Hi Gary, I made sure that every earth connection had clean contact and star washers under the eyelets to ensure a good electrical circuit. My multimeter has a range setting of 1 ohm, and for both old and new coils was nicely sitting on the zero mark, when tested.

Confirmed today that the new coil was a failed unit and has now been returned to the supplier. Rather worryingly, when I was packing it up, I shook it and could hear the resin or gel insulator splashing about. Not a good sign, I'm sure! For those who need to replace a coil, steer clear of those advertised on the internet that have a plain black body. It looks like these fall into the category of "poor manufacture of after market parts".

With a long weekend break visiting family in other parts of the country now beckoning, it will be late next week before I can get started on this again. My first task will be to source a coil that doesn't involve it being transported by post or courier to my home address. If I can find a suitable supplier while I'm away, so much the better.

[G Force]

Hi Pete
Glad you were able to prove the coil was definitely faulty. The oil cooled coils back in the day were really reliable but not so now it would seem. It was when I was looking at the beautiful engine bay transformation pictures in your other post that I got to thinking it could have just been something as easy to miss as the earthing but you are on top of that so its not going to be the problem.

Hi Gary, glad you're back as you've been missing for quite a while

Hi Jeff, thank you for that I keep checking in quite often, but you guys are always on the money with your advice etc. I don't seem to have anything to add lately.
Cheers all.
Regards, Gary

[Sussex Pete]

Well, the news of the morning is that the Ignition ECU has been confirmed to have failed. While I was away last weekend, I bought another GCL143 equivalent electronic ignition coil. This time over the counter, so no possibility of it being mishandled by a courier (as if they would!). Once I returned home, I trial fitted the new coil and tested for a spark - straight from the coil to isolate any dizzy cap/rotor arm problems. Same result - no spark! Got in touch with the technical support team at Intermotor (the new coil brand) to discuss the problem. Spoke to a very helpful guy who confirmed a) each "wet" coil is manufactured in Nottingham and individually tested before despatch, so faulty coil for the 3rd time was now extremely unlikely; b) BL did try to rationalise Maestro ECU's across the range and failed miserably, so an ECU from another model will not work even as a test; c) the Lucas Ignition analyzer unit is only confirming the wiring to and from the ECU and d) Intermotor (aka Bluestreak) carry out an investigate/repair/replace service for most of the BL ECU's from the 80's and 90's. So, my ECU was sent to them yesterday, arrived and tested this morning with the result that it either needs a major repair or replacement. I am currently waiting for a further call to confirm which of those will be the way forward.

As an aside, and hopefully confirmation that I was speaking to someone who had in-depth knowledge of our Maestros and Montegos, he passed on that in his earlier career, he held the very first Montego boot badge - before BL had finally decided on that name for the car. Interesting who you speak to and who have been associated with BL cars and their design and manufacture!

[Sussex Pete]

Bl**dy hell! Talk about one step forward and three back! Spoke to the technician testing my ECU this lunchtime who told me that in fact my ECU is absolutely fine. Apparently a junior technician either didn't know how to run the tests or didn't read the results correctly. Anyway, it is now being sent back to me for refitting to the car.

I shall now re-run all the tests using Jeffs loaned ECU testers just to make sure that I didn't misread what they were saying before. After that, if they report that all the sensors are working as they should and there are no problems, I shall probably pull all my hair out, "scweem and scweem until I am sick" , and then see if I can find an auto-electrician who understands this style of ignition system to see if they can provide another viewpoint/pair of eyes/brain cells to pinpoint what is not working.

[Jeff Turbo]

Have you checked that power is getting to the coil Pete. The lucas fastcheck I sent you should tell you this, and if the coil was faulty it would have told you. The coil light should be on