Ernie Misner

Isn't your Zenoah 20 a magneto job though?

Lightspeed1551

My Feedback: (4)

I had a broken power wire just outside my Brisons ignition box. The wire has spent to much time partly folded and broke in the insulator. Luckily it was on the ground before the first flight of the day. Figured it out by having my dad wiggle wires till it fired. Later at home I opened the box and soldered a new wire to the board. Works great now.

zx32tt

My Feedback: (9)

I had a plug wire go bad on a rcexcel unit. The spark would jump to the braided wire about midway along the plug wire. I was able to finally spot it by using rcexcel's ignition tester. There was no visible evidence of a cut or fray on the plug wire. It was driving me nuts trying to get the DLE 55 to run.

mikes68charger

My Feedback: (34)

I have had 3 go bad

1st on hobbyKing TYG52cc. Died while on ground motor still running then all control servos jumping around then motor shut off

2nd SPE26 with the same issue as the poster above - spark comeing out of wire with no fray

3rd DLE 30. I'm working on now, it was a new motor while on the 4th flight while my buddy was flying he lot control of his spacewalker - it kept flying no control with DX7

the bird hit a tree not bad damage. I just put this motor in my GP Super Stearman and the motor would chough spit and fire for 2-3 sec but as soon I replaced it with a new box it would fire right up

rexbirk

Seems that a lot of us have had ignition issues. Makes me wonder if we are mounting the ignitions improperly? I usually use velcro one wrap wrapped around the unit that I have wrapped with foam. Then I stick the wrapped unit to a piece of velcro glued down to the motor box. Sometimes the motor box has holes or slots that I can use to run velcro around the unit and strap it to the motor box.

I have yet to have a failure with an RcExcel unit though. All my failures have been Chinese OEM Units.

Ernie Misner

What is the connection between the ignition unit going bad and the control surfaces jumping around? If just running one battery, did that cause a big voltage drain on the single battery?

Thanks, Ernie

JPMacG

My Feedback: (2)

I don't understand how my experiences and observations can be so totally different than the majority here. In 10 years of flying I have never, ever, even once had a glow plug go bad. I have glow plugs that have probably seen 15 gallons of fuel.

There are three guys in my club who fly gas, and each has had to replace an ignition module at least once. Some were bad out of the box and some went bad after a few flights.

captinjohn

One way to see if the spark is jumping where it should not is torun the engine in total darkness. You will need a flood lite too see too start it and make sure the airplane is tied down good. You may be real surprized!!! Capt,n

Ernie Misner

That's a great trick John. Works under the hood of your car at night when the plug wires are worn out too.

captinjohn

Sure does...I remember my neighbor was having troubles with his car engine missing. So we did the in darkness trick...man it was amazing the thing even ran at all. There was glows...spark tracks...on 70% of the spark plug wires. the real fix was replacing them all. Fixed. Capt,n

mikes68charger

My Feedback: (34)

It made a audable high pich screech when it whent bad and it messed with the reciver, even thow it had its own power source and swich. Thats one of the reasons they say to keep your ignition as far as possable from you recivers.