Quote:
Originally Posted by ol'George
..lectronic bullshit thingy off and put it in the trash.
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Sooo... there's a bunch of baggage on both sides of this.
I've heard plenty of things like the above from the classic hot rodding crowd. They usually tell me I should rip that electronic stuff off and use a carb because I can fix it with a screw driver. I prefer fuel injection that doesn't break in the first place.
I've built enough space flight hardware to know that electronics are far more reliable than mechanical devices (well... as long as current and heat limitations are met). That doesn't mean that the Transdenser is a great product, as a worthy electronics engineer is unlikely to be moonlighting making ignition relays for 40 year old lawn tractors.
Or maybe it could be a great product that was used outside of specification.
Even in the fuel injection world (especially in the classic BMW community) I've run across plenty of people who have a problem and throw parts at it until it goes away. Then they blame the last part they threw at it instead of their terrible diagnostic skills.
Can anybody link examples of failures in a Transdenser module?
Do I need to clean the points? Sure. I did the factory mixture procedure and as I was about to test that, I noticed that the indicator light in the Transdenser was flickering. Since it's not supposed to do that, I checked things further. I can rotate the engine and the light will get bright, then dim and flickering. This doesn't mean there's a problem with it... just that the points are still passing enough current to light the LED when they're supposed to be open. That means I should clean and retime.
In the process of playing with it, I found the location at which the points open as indicated by the LED and a VERY healthy spark. I checked the timing window and, lo and behold, there was the single timing mark I mentioned earlier.
Cliff's Notes: Next up: cleaning the points.