Ultraspark electronic ignition, thumbs up.

is it normal that the unit is attached with just 1 screw instead of 2?

Tried fitting Ultra spark but my '87 won't start. The setup with points system is - purple ignition wire on - side of coil amd brown/white and green wires on + side of coil. Other green wire goes to condenser attached to distributor, black wire from this condenser goes to points.

When I fit the electronic kit I put red wire to + of coil and black to - of coil, condenser fitted to side of coil is removed. The purple, green and brown/white wires stay in origional position as above. The coil Ignitionland sent me has Ballast written on it. Where am I going wrong????

Firstly, in answer to Martijn, the unit within the distributor should be fixed with two screws - [EDITED!] or a single screw and a locating peg to stop the base plate turning.

Noel, it seems you have several issues! Looks like you had your coil connected backwards for a start.

The UltraSpark unit is intended for non-ballasted coils, or ballasted coils provided with the correct resistor. Without a ballast resistor the UltraSpark will not cope with a low resistance (i.e. "Ballast") coil in place of the stock coil. A stock X1/9 coil will have a primary resistance of around 3 ohms. A "ballast" coil will have a primary resistance of around 1 - 1.5 ohms; the ballast resistor in series with the coil will bring the total resistance up to around 3 ohms.

UK X1/9s never had a ballasted coil ignition system fitted from the factory. If you do have one it will be aftermarket or pinched from another make/model of car.

You need to do the following:

Removed.

Further notes on a ballasted coil ignition system:

Removed.

I should add - I'm afraid to say you may have blown up your UltraSpark unit by connecting its black wire direct to 12V. I hope not

Thank you very much for that detailed info, the electronic piece should be od as I put in an inline fuse and it's ok. Forgot to mention ther is only one wire in my distrbutor which goes to attached condenser. Thought I should mention this as in some utube videos it shows a second wire which is attached to the electronic eye - do i need a wire attached to mine?

No worries, hope it helps!

In the standard points ignition, one side of the points is connected by the green wire to the coil. The condenser on the distributor is also connected to the same side of the points. The condenser is also connected to earth by its outer can being fixed to the distributor.

The other side of the points is also earthed, via its fixing screws to the distributor. Thus when the points are closed they connect terminal 1 of the coil to earth to charge it, and whenever the points open the current is interrupted and a spark is generated.

So, you should have a thin wire from the points, going to an insulated terminal post on the side of the distributor. Also connected to this terminal on the outside will be the short wire from the condenser and the green wire going off to terminal 1 on the coil. In some makes of distributors the condenser is inside, but it is connected the same way.

When you fit the UltraSpark module, all of the above is removed and discarded. The insulated terminal post is removed and replaced with a simple rubber grommet or a moulded plastic fitting to allow the red and black wires to exit the distributor. The red wire goes to an ignition switched 12V supply - it doesn't have to be from the coil, but that is usually the most convenient spot. Connect it to the coil terminal 15 or + (or to the pink wire end of the ballast resistor if you have one). The black wire replaces the green wire that went to the coil terminal 1. The only other thing connected to terminal 1 should be the brown/white rev counter wire. Any other wire or device connected to this terminal will upset your UltraSpark module.

Looking at the "photo" of the X1/9 conversion kit shown on Ignition Car Parts' web site, the photo actually shows a Lucas 25D distributor. There is a third, white wire present. This is not actually part of the Ultra Spark module. It is there simply to give a good earth connection between the moving base plate (for vacuum advance) of the distributor and the body of the distributor. UK X1/9 distributors don't have vacuum advance so the baseplate should be fixed. If the distributor has vacuum advance and thus a moving baseplate, this wire should be retained.