The V8 Owners Forum -

I have just fitted a Powerspark electronic ignition to my 3.5 Rover V8. It has the powerspark coil to go with it, which is a non-ballast type.

When cranking the engine over the voltage drops to 9 volts. When speaking to Powerspark they are saying this is border line for the ignition to work properly. I thought that when cranking the engine over this does have a drastic effect on the voltage, which is why ballast coils are fitted to obviously run on a lower voltage. The Powerspark system is recommended to run with a non-ballast coil but this seems to be a problem.

Has anyone got any thoughts on this?

Many thanks

Garry

You should only need a coil with ballast resistor for points ignition. Once you go to electronic switching, the electronics should compensate for the lower voltage when cranking. Of course 'should' doesn't always happen...

So saying, 9 volts is rather low for a properly specified starter and battery in decent condition. Especially at this time of the year.

Thanks for your reply!

We're going to try an electronic system with an in-line ballast and coil to match to see whether this makes any difference!

We'll let you know

Regards

Garry

What sort of ignition is it - a full electronic system as an upgrade to the later rover module or just a set of those electronic points?

Darkspeed wrote:What sort of ignition is it - a full electronic system as an upgrade to the later rover module or just a set of those electronic points?

We've bought an Accuspark electronic points ignition with an inline ballast and a coil to match ... and Eureka! It's alive!!

We had tried the PowerSpark non-ballast system but this wouldn't start it ... When the car started the advance and retard is on the take-off nearest the centre of the distributor and the left hand side of the carburettor ... this is how we got it started but I haven't tried any of the other positions yet.

Thanks for the helpful comments!

Regards

Garry