5 replies to this topic

[Lund]

Any benefit to my mini at all? What does it do thats special?

Edited by Lund, 09 January 2008 - 04:50 PM.

[Ethel]

Never mind that, did you fix your indicators? Just a thought, but it would be good if people who posted techie problems wrote a quicky postscript so that others using search got the benefit of your experience. How else would they know if the advice offered was a load of bovine excrement?

[Lund]

Yeh fixed the indicators, was shorting at the 'green light' bulb holder i think, so just made a temporary fixing for now until i get the part. All is working a-okay now.

So yerh..Lucas coil?

[Lund]

to be honest, not sure if its for my Land Rover lol

Edited by Lund, 09 January 2008 - 04:54 PM.

[dklawson]

Some may tell you that a Sports Coil or other performance coil is great. I will not.

The premise that one coil is better than another often hinges around discussing the output voltage of the coil. This can range from 20kV to perhaps 40kV for "standard" coils. Some coils for later cars than the Mini may be classified as HEI ignition coils and these go significantly higher. The problem with changing the coil alone is that the coil doesn't create a hotter spark or one that lasts longer. To get a hotter longer firing spark requires changes to the distributor and opening up the spark plug gap.

The voltage of of a spark at the plugs is controlled not by the coil but by the plug gap. The wider the gap, the higher the voltage to jump across the gap. In theory, this makes a hotter spark. However, the length of time the coil has to charge and discharge to deliver this hotter spark is controlled by the dwell time of the distributor. Electronic ignitions (in general) allow the coil to achieve these hotter sparks.

In summary, if all you're changing is the coil, you won't see any improvement worth mentioning. If you have electronic ignition, you may find you can open the plug gap up a bit. I think you'd still need to experiment with the settings to find what works best for your engine. If you stick with the stock settings though, the coil alone won't make any difference in performance or economy.

[Ethel]

There you go- leccy ignition well worth the effort and so often over looked.

Going back to the indicators... the reason all four came on is because they are actually linked through the green dash warning lamp. When you indicate left the warning lamp earths through the right indicators 'n vice versa. Normally the indicators don't light as the high resistance of the warning lamp filament means not enough current gets through. The warning lamp bulb holder should be insulated from the speedo housing and is usually made of plastic, somehow they do sometimes get swapped for metal ones like the other bulb holders