Unclejake Posted March 17, 2009 Share Posted March 17, 2009 Yeah. Well I got bored so bought something like this from Tradme (but mine was a cicrular saw attachment) for $15. Then I found my variable speed drill. This one isn't it as mine is covered in grease and shit. Then I found my adjustable timing light. This light has a knob on it that allows me to observe advance or retard using only the TDC mark on an engine. It saved me a step in the build process but you can make what I did with an ordinary old static timing light Then I scabed up some bits of random crap lying around in the workshop and screwed together a timber frame with a lump of alloy to mount the dizzy to. This alloy was to make life easy and provide an earth for the dizzy and the steel for the spark plugs earth bar was something I cut off something else that I forget. Probably a vital brake component of somesuch. Anyway, we parted off the teeth of the circular saw blade to reduce the excitment (vvega was against this move) and got out a felt pen and a bit of strong heak shrink. The result is this: It was a fuck-up as there was not enough strength in the heat shrink to prevent twisting. The result was that the spark advance was advertised as less than was present due to the torque on the heatshrink as the dizzy was accelerating. Remember now that your dizzy spins at half the speed of your engine so to simulate a 6,000rpm engine speen you only need to drive the drill to 3,000rpm (which is still quite a bit). The torque problem was solved by parting off a bit of alloy pipe and simply sitting that ontop of an old socket we bolted to the circular saw drive, placing the distributor scroll ontop and heating up a fresh bit of heatshrink Now it works. 1) Guess a line on the steel spinning disc (the old saw blade) and mark it with a felt pen. 2) Spin the dizzy with the drill JUST fast enought to get a spark. Marke the spot the spark happens onto the alloy saw frame with a pen. 3) You now have a baseline. An ignition timing point with no advance (much like what you would see cranking the engine over on the starter motor 4) Increase the speed of the drill and see what happens. If you do not have an adjustable timing light then get a protractor and mark some degree intervals on the saw frame This device is designed to be able to be sat in the engine bay of my race car so I can plug the dizzy to be tested into my installed wiring harness. Next Steps: I plan to integrate a rev counter for the use of others. I don't need one as I use the tester wired up to the vehicle but sooner or later someone will want to borrow this work or art/trash Observations: With drill going nuts we watched the pretty sparks from the plugs one night and one or two were missfiring. We could see it!! In the end it was as simple as two of the plug leads not being on properly. It was amazing to watch though. Another happy job is to drill a hole in the top of your dizzy cap right by #1 plug lead. You can shine the timing light down there and observe your rotor phasing. Ain't that cool For the fun of it take the dizzy cap right off and run the timing light off the coil. The light will flash at the internals of the dizzy. This may tell you something of give you a seizure. Both are activity you would not otherwise have done that night. Note: Adjustable timing lights and MSD systems do not get along well. If you have an MSD ignition in your rig then a static timing light is recommended More later if I can be arsed. Hello "Other Projects Thread" *waves* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EFI_LC Posted March 17, 2009 Share Posted March 17, 2009 I was waiting to see you hook it up to a dead guy called Frank and bring him back... Dam I want one of them timing lights..... my car only has 12 max so I dunno wat its doing at 3k Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unclejake Posted March 18, 2009 Author Share Posted March 18, 2009 All your advance should be in by 3,000RPM anyway mate. I needed to take my dizzy above 6,2000rpm (engine speed) to test a high RPM step retard I installed. I am glad I tested it because it didn't work due to a simple assembly error in the dizzy that took us about a week to find (with thanks to KKK who actually spotted it) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikuni Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 This looks like a pretty cool wee setup. Have you had any sweet shocks off it yet? If not, invite greatestben around or someone else equally young and impressionable and get him to "grab the wood". I was thinking this would be a cool tool to use just to test plugs to see how they are functioning after a long life, but then noticed you'd kind of mentioned that already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thegreatestben Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 Lol I think chris would be more easily coaxed into grabbing the wood. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goat Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 Dizzy machines rule me, 'specially home made ones. I think last time i saw this it was in its fledgling stages Lush UJ Lush Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unclejake Posted March 29, 2009 Author Share Posted March 29, 2009 ^ Can prolly add another earth bar to it with ease. 12 sparkplugs for Flange's Jag yo. Would be rather amusing to get tweleve guys hanging on to a plug lead each and then slowly increase the dizzy speed. Faster and faster and faster! Last man standing wins etc. /probably will do it when drunk next Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
durty Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 ^ Can prolly add another earth bar to it with ease. 12 sparkplugs for Flange's Jag yo. Would be rather amusing to get tweleve guys hanging on to a plug lead each and then slowly increase the dizzy speed. Faster and faster and faster! Last man standing wins etc. /probably will do it when drunk next SO keen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goat Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 Could be a potentially awesome/dangerous idea. I'll have to rock round one Wednesday etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
My name is Russell Posted March 30, 2009 Share Posted March 30, 2009 Lol I think chris would be more easily coaxed into grabbing the wood. Glad iv seen this Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Doohan Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 i think the no teeth idea needs more revision Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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