Removing MegaJolt

[Graham Sewell]

Hi,

 

Last September I had an MJ fitted to my less than trusty Xflow by a company in Newbury (AFRacing). Needless to say, things are no longer working - no sparks and the unit does not appear to see the engine turning over.

 

i have replaced the sensor and the lead (both ways round) and still get nowhere. As far as I can tell, because the 35-1 trigger wheel is slightly smaller than the crankshaft pulley, the sensor cannot be put in a good position to pick up the signal.

 

AFRacing no longer exist - went into liquidation earlier this year - so no support there. there is no other official MJ installers nearby and the towing costs to Chris Wheeler would be excessive - in addition to time off work that I can ill afford.

 

Performance wise, I did not find that the 3D ignition was any faster than my memories of the clockwork setup - only slightly better mannered below 2000rpm which is not a big issue for me.

 

Full credit goes to Trigger Wheels who have been as helpful as I could reasonably expect given that my contract was with AFRacing. However, I still cannot get the system to fire. I need to insure the car next week because of the new laws and I need an MOT in the next month otherwise I need to SORN the car in August

 

So I have decided to revert back to clockwork. What I cannot see is how to get the coil pack off the bracket so that I can remount the original Lucas coil.

 

The trigger wheel will need to stay on the car for 2 reasons:

- the crankshaft bolt has been replaced with a longer bolt (ie no longer fits without the trigger wheel)

- the trigger wheel was also located with loctite (as were the spacing washers) - so a fair amount of brute force will be needed to remove them

 

I may be selling the MJ, EDIS, coil pack and spark plug leads after they have been removed - I am sure they are OK and that it is an installation issue - it is just too costly to carry on debugging.

 

Any ideas?

[jonboylaw]

Graham,

The coil pack will be bolted on at the corners, did you use the Triggerwheel coil bracket ?

 

I would recommend replacing the crank pully with the Burton small Steel one, then having the trigger wheel welded to this in the right orientation, this will allow the trigger to detect the teeth easier. I really think the MJ is worth retaining, it just sounds like you have had a poor instal by some cowboys. If you were closer I would sort it for you.

 

Jon

[Graham Sewell]

Hi Jon,

 

If I were more mechanically adept and had more tools then I might be half-arsed to do something. I have already thrown > £600 on this setup and currently have an overweight paperweight in the garage.

 

I do not fancy trying to remove the trigger wheel as it is loctited in place and the space to get a purchase on it is minimal due to the cross member just in from of the pulley. Otherwise, I'd shell out for the Weber wheel kit. And that is assuming that I could find someone to weld it on the pulley in the right place. To say that my trust in mechanics that I have paid for is sadly lacking would be to trivialise it. So far, only Chris Wheeler has not tried to kill me - all other companies that have touch the Seven have - including Ratrace and James Whiting - so I must be jinxed considering the number of cars that they have dealt with in the past.

 

So I prefer to shell out £300 on a new dizzy, coil and leads and know that I can do the work, compared to paying somebody that I don't trust to try and kill me again.

 

TBH - I did not get any significant performance gain and I no longer trust the reliability compared to equipment that I can work on and understand.

[Site Manager]

Graham,

 

I don't think that you should be accusing people of trying to kill you, so I've removed your post.