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Burned out Ignitors

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Old 05-13-2009, 02:55 PM
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Default Burned out Ignitors

A few weeks ago my tach stopped working, after some troubleshooting I figured out the ignitor was bad and replaced it. Everything worked fine for a couple weeks, now the tach is broken again. Is there anything you guys can think of that would be causing the problem? Maybe a short or something? Anybody heard of this happening before? I find it hard to believe that it could just be coincidence. :(
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Old 05-14-2009, 10:45 PM
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Yes, this happened to me twice on my '92 Both times were after I unplugged and removed my FM/Link ECU without disconnecting the battery earth lead first. Are your battery lead and ECU connections tight?

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Old 05-14-2009, 11:12 PM
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Stupid question, sorry, when you say battery earth lead, is that referring to the battery ground (the negative terminal)? I'll double check those, thanks for the tip, this is awfully frustrating. I'm pretty sure I killed my 3rd ignitor today :(
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Old 05-15-2009, 09:47 PM
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Yes Earth = Negative. Once you have disconnected the negative strap from the battery you can then check out the ECU (and other electrical) connections.

Something I didn't mention before was that the first time I blew the ignitor I lost spark to two cylinders. I don't think this happend when the second ignitor blew...

Hope this helps.

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Old 05-15-2009, 09:59 PM
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i have one if you need one i got it for a coil over plug set up i got but never installed the coils or the ignitor
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Old 06-02-2009, 03:22 PM
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i did the same thing unpluged my link ecu and then my tach died .. it was the ignitor as well.. i am looking for a replacment ignitor now .. but i took my hole tach cluster out and check so many things before i tried a friends ignitor and that worked..
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Old 06-02-2009, 03:28 PM
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Are you guys leaving the ignition in the "on" position with the engine off for minutes at a time?

If you are, you could be overheating the ignitors. This will not happen with the OEM PCM but will with most/some aftermarket units.

The reason that you loose two cylinders is because of the waste spark system.
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