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Mon 14 Apr 2003 10:25

Fiat electrical problem - PeterC

Hi
I have a 1984 FIAT Regata 70 ES (Energy Saving) with Magneti Marelli Digiplex electronic ignition (Actually it has the CityMatic system which cuts off the engine at traffic lights.)

The car is in excellent condition having only covered 37,000 from new and me being the only owner from new.

Recently, I have been suffering intermittent non starting problems (no spark). I have changed the coil, HT lead, distributor cap/rotor arm, battery but still I get this intermittent non-sparking. The only thing left to change is the Digiplex electronic ignition unit. Does anyone know if these tend to become faulty or what else might you suggest?

Thanks in advance.
Regards
Peter

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Mon 14 Apr 2003 10:58

Fiat electrical problem - Peter D

I have a 1984 FIAT Regata 70 ES (Energy Saving) with Magneti

Marelli Digiplex electronic ignition (Actually it has the

CityMatic system which cuts off the engine at traffic lights.)

How does the system know it is at traffic lights ??

I Jest, I sounds like the system may be kicking in and removing power from the coil. Assuming one side of the coil is fed with a live feed from the Digiplex box then wire up an LED and 1K ohm resistor so that when it fails next time you can quickly see if the power has been turned off. However they may just inhibit the trigger pulse to the ignition amplifier and leave the poer on all the time, well assuming the ignition is on. Regards Peter

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Thu 17 Apr 2003 08:23

Fiat electrical problem - PeterC

It has been suggested that this may be caused by the TDC sensor or the RPM sensor. What do these look like and could this be the cause?
Peter

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