pluto.weavil

No ballast wire in The transit, it came with a ceramic ballast resistor from the off, I've just replaced it with a new one. A lot have people have said accuspark are no good but I've done 40k in the Cortina and it's been great hence I bought another.. It did start fine, I turned it off, connected my timing light and then the starter clicked a few times then nothing... Was worried I had wired it up wrong but if it looks ok it must just have been a coincidence it went kaput?...

I've had an accuspark kit in my 1600 pinto MK3 for about 8 years and I've done 40k with no problems.

Ok so I know it's not a Cortina but it will be towing one soon hopefully! I'm getting the mk2 eurobarge back on the road and had a problem with the dizzy so I decided to fit an accuspark kit.. It's a ballasted unit and I think I've wired it up correctly but could someone just take a look and see if it's correct... reason being I got it running but then it now refuses to start, I turn the key and the 2 red lights just go dim. It's got a new battery so I was just worried if it's possible to wire the ballast wires in wrong and fry the starter? Or have I just been unlucky and it's just packed up all of a sudden unrelated to my new wiring!. It's running a 2l pinto with ballast coil and resistor but has extra wires at the resistor and 3 cold start connections on the starter itself(red live and a spade and another threaded connection) so just a bit confused. Have included pics of original wiring and then what I have done. Many thanks🙏

Just back from a great trip across France and Spain in the Mk3. We did 2650 miles, spent £602 on fuel and £204 on tolls. The car absolutely flew down to the Costa Brava, stopping off at valensole in Provence to see the lavender fields and the pont du Gard viaduct on the way back. It was absolutely roasting as soon as we hit Lyon on the way down and we were stuck in traffic for about an hour but the car kept it's cool and trundled off with no problems! 3 weeks away we set off stopping at clermont ferrand and then driving non stop for Calais.

Oh we were there during covid staying at callela palafrgell, have a great time. All the best.

Yes the Tina is all ready to head off at the weekend!, stripped the engine and i've done about 400 miles on some long runs since and its been running fantastic so fingers crossed he behaves himself!. We are heading down to Provence to see the lavender fields first, then onto the costa brava for a few weeks. On the way back staying at Arles then right next to Pont du gard before heading up towards normandy to visit Bayeux and the d-day beaches etc. Then a final push towards belgium to visit the Somme battlefield areas. Thanks for the Spain ulez advice, didnt realise that about barcelona, was planning to drive into the city to visit a friend and then onto monseratt/manresa but might catch the train now, give us a break from the vinyl seats :) will post some piccys when were back and maybe even see you out there!

Will do! Should be a fun trip butt maybe the last in the Cortina due to all the crit air emission regs being rolled out across France!

Thanks ghia MK4/5 it's worth a shout I suppose before I take it to bits! Tim, we went down to Croatia in the Tina last year, absolutely scorching! we are used to sticking to the seats! ;). We stayed under the millau bridge last year too, really nice little village hewn into the rock under the bridge! We do a euro trip at least twice a year in the Tina and we have done the whole of Europe now!, We were meant to be driving to Moscow until Putin decided to go shopping! Well we are going to be in Blane's for the firework competition which is worth a visit, lasts a few days so who knows we might meet up! Have a wicked trip!

Hey Tim, yes bad news butt he's ho, will keep me busy! ;) I'm heading down to Provence, then Costa brava, then Monaco and back to Normandy to visit the d day beaches etc. Should be a good trip depending on my mechanical skills ;). Heading out on the 17th so who knows we might bump into each other. Have a great trip and I will post some pics of the trip good or bad when we get back on the aa wagon.

So piston ring on its way out... Looks like I'm going to have to do a bit of work

Cheers guys, The blue smoke is only just noticeable.. once started nothing, even under load. Just did a wet test on the low cylinder

Just thought I'd do a compression test on the 1.6 pinto due to Engine feeling a bit down on power, Engine runs fine, bit of blue smoke on startup. One cylinder is a couple of bars lower than the rest, retested it a few times.. as in previous post off on a euro roadtrip in a few weeks. New piston ring time?

Cheers for the advice tim! Definitely struggles with the E10 but I can usually get e5 no problem in France, well apart from the price of the stuff! It normally flys up the hills to Spain etc but just seems down on power ATM, checked everything mechanically and it's all good, plugs a great colour etc. We went to gorges du tarn last year and it was going down the mountains that was the problem! Bit scary having brake fade on some of those bends! I might knock it back a bit and hopefully get it on a rolling road for peace of mind!

16 degrees just seemed a bit too much and the local garage bloke who (apparently) knows everything there is to know about pinto engines says it will burn out the valves and should be set to 6 degrees max... Not so sure he is the oracle tbh ;)

Yes using a timing light, usually it's set to 14 degrees but it's been notably harder to start recently... It's had a full service, new plugs, tappets set and new rotor arm etc... Runs better with more advance than usual and isn't pinking set to 16 and running spot on, just don't want to burn out the valves if that's a thing with too much advance..