The V8 Owners Forum -

I've got a problem with a 92/93MY Classic Range Rover with a 3.9 Rover V8.

The car appears to start and run OK, except for a new problem invloving a failing Vacuum advance which sometimes causes the revs to drop and rise again (probably the IACV cutting it to try and idle it?). The plugs are BPR6E and the ends are quite carboned up. I think the cap and rotor are non genuine as well, but I'm not sure, but despite being quite new, the contacts on the rotor and cap are in quite apoor condition with some sort of grey deposit on the cap and the rotor is just wearing badly at the tip.

Anyway, the issue is the hot coil. It gets so hot after a few minutes that you can't put your hand on it. The previous one (intermotor) actually blew its top off and oil spilled onto the exhaust manifold.

It now has a Lucas DLB198 on it. I've tried to clean up the earth under the coil with a wire brush and cleaner.

From what I see in the workshop manual, the wiring is correct. I've fitted a replacement link lead from the distributor module. There is a blue and white wire which links to the one coil terminal which could be from the ignition system, looking at the workshop manual.

Using a multimeter I get 12v into the coil and 7 out of it. I guess the heat is product of the difference in voltage?

The system should be 12v shouldn't it? It has been suggested that I use a balast resistor in the system to drop the feed voltage? Is this correct? I'm just a bit confused.com

The only thing controlling the coil is the ignition amplifier (on the side of the distributor)

Try changing it to see if that helps.

Chris.

If there's burning at the rotor arm, I'd first look at all the plug leads including the king lead, and their connections. These should be to OEM standard. The system is designed to work with a given resistance between coil and plug gap - altering this can cause problems.

For example, on a bog standard system, I had severe corrosion between coil output terminal and king lead - perhaps caused by moisture getting in. This caused the carbon brush in the dizzy cap and the rotor tip to burn badly.

Well done Chris - Turned out to be the module.

I've then replaced the cap and rotor as well as fitting OEM ignition leads. Car runs cleaner now and there is less smoke from the tail pipe.