Re: jaycar ignition

try and ask me what you will.

The thing here is that nobody has stated which jaycar boxes they're talking about. But basically there is only really one combination I think people are talking about.

There is the high energy ignition kit - there is the programmable kit - and possibly an older kit that simply replaces the points (doubt it though).

So anyway the basic kit removes switching load from the points and just uses it as a trigger to tell the ignition kit (jaycar box) when to spark - the box does management stuff so that you get accurate spark / dwell angle and stuff.

The idea with the programmable kit is to lock the dissy advance plate so that the kit retards or advances from a set point - hence the ability to store a lookup table for advanvce curve.

This reduced points load allows a closer points gap which in turn increases high RPM reliability and theoretically reducing points bounce a bit.

The programmable kit (current one) can store two different advance curves. it should be noted that they are forced advance curves and will not react to engine load etc in the sense that something with vacuum advance may do. On a traditional dissy the vacuum advance is progressive up to a maximum alteration of advance. On the Jaycar box you can chop up your vacuum advance unit and use its leg to turn on a microswitch - and thus trigger a set alteration in advance for that state. Prob is that the vacuum advance change happens all at once rather than smoothly so it seems to result in some bizzare changes in engine running near idle - off idle etc.

I guess should the need arise you could take that microswith feed to the programmable kit and have a pressure switch so that it was tripped when a preset boost pressure was realised. I will have to check to see if the vacuum advance setting can be set to retard rather than advance.

The other thing is the High Energy kit which helps manage the coil for maximum spark. It seems to only (from memory) work with the programmable kit rather than just on its own.

It's good stuff if you set it up right - and it allows on the fly changes via keypad to your curve. This would be essential if you were running a questionable or highly modified setup as you can tweak it when you need. Or if you run a ####ty grade of fuel you can pick out your other (1 of 2) curves for low octane etc.

The programmable kit also offers ignition cut out rev limiting and keypad immobiliser security.

NUFF said - I hope.