Mr_Grump

Hi Ya Gents

Put your thinking caps on and help me out. I have a G26EI that until recently was running great on an RCXL ignition. Suddenly it wouldn't even start. It would and still does, hit and run a dozen revolutions or so then quits. I can continue to flip the prop and it'll pop a few times then hit and run a dozen more revs.

I decided to try the old Zenoah ignition just to see if I get the same results. I just laid the Zenoah ignition on the ground below the bird. The RCXL ignition is mounted on the firewall. I used the same 4 cell battery on both with no switches ect in the circuit. I did the following:

1. Disconnect battery to the RCXL.

2. Disconnect the RCXL's hall lead, connect the Zenoah hall lead.

3. Disconnect the RCXL's plug wire, connect the Zenoah plug wire.

4. Connect battery to Zenoah.

Flip it and it starts and runs great. Low to high RPM. Do the steps above in reverse and it spits and sputters on the RCXL. I went through this 4 times. When it was running on the Zenoah, I wiggled connections to battery and sensor but it didn't miss a beat. I bought a new RCXL ignition and have the same results.

I don't know what the hell is going on. How can it run on the inefficient Zenoah and not the efficient new one which until recently, the RCXL ran fine?

ec121

My Feedback: (2)

Have you cycled the battery to see if it is good? You have changed everything but the battery, and you have proved the Hall sensor good with the Zenoah ignition. As a long shot maybe the Zenoah uses less current than the RCEXL and loads up the battery less. Or the battery has a bad cell, and the Zenoah will run on less voltage.

Mr_Grump

Thanks for weighing in ec121

I did check out the battery. The zenoah typically draws a lot more current. THey're known for being inefficient.

I did think about a battery issue so I checked the battery under a 1 amp load and was good. Just to be sure. I hooked the RCXL back up to the planes battery. It's a 2700 Li-ion on a 6V regulator. It's voltage was good also. I checked it under load as well. The end result was the same. I even changed the plug even though common sense told me it wasn't the problem.

It just doesn't make sense.

captinjohn

I would go with the Zenoah ignition. Very good spark. Go to the Toni Clark website & read about that ignition. He has good sucess with a certain battery. I think it was lower voltage....but would run the airplane longer.

The Rcexl ignition is supposed to be so good with a lot of praises. My question is ...why is there so many postings of trouble (Rcexl) with them? I have not had that good of luck with them ....2 out of 3 ...some trouble???? Capt,n

karolh

Capt,n maybe it's just your bad luck that you just got couple Monday morning ignitions, as my experience with my RC exl ignitions is that for the three years that I have had them they have performed flawlessly, and all run on 4.8 volts.

Karol

bcchi

Are you sure you have the spark plug cap all the way on.The snap ring must be all the way past the hex when it is on correctly.It goes on hard,push and turn with the heal of you hand. RCEXL Ignitions are very good. But anything can have a problem.If you try and run the engine with the spark plug cap not all the way on it can sometimes cause the spark to jump under the epoxy insulation .This will form a carbon path and Ign will not work properly.This is not the fault of the Ign.This is about the only problem we had with the CHRCEXL ignition that Xu built for us He did do some other things for us ,but that is a secret.We had to close C&H after 32 years.
BCCHI

All Day Dan

My Feedback: (5)

BCCHI, I sent you a PM. Dan.

Mr_Grump

Thanks everyone for your tips and advice. I have read Tony Clarks article on using the 2 cell Lipo. If I'd read it before I started using the RCXL's, I might have just stuck with Zenoah's ignition. I been using the same ignition on a G20 with no issues.

I'm pretty sure I had the plug cap on completely. It is difficult and I have to push down hard on the engine to seat the cap. I will take another look.

Have to admit this is the most baffling engine problem I've encountered. Once it's solved I'll post the problem again and the solution.

Any other suggestions would be welcomed.

Regards

pe reivers

Nothing puzzling here.
The RCexcl ignition is faulty. It may need just a hall sensor though. Have it checked out. These ignitions draw much less amps than the Zenoah ignitions. But like ALL electronic ignitions, failure rate is higher than magneto ignitions, and they are more prone to user inflicted failures as well.

captinjohn

<hr />Anyone who has a good Zenoah ignition that wants to part with it...give me a PM email. Thanks Capt,n

Mr_Grump

Thanks everyone who's posted. I've moved this over to another thread. Search for "RCEXL company Needs to get Involved"

Thanks

Mr_Grump

I'm back from a short Gulf Shores vacation. I just knew it was going to be a good day.... or so I thought.

I received and installed my new hall sensor. Fueled up the plane and still..... same problem!!!!!! One thing I noticed was the screws mounting the hall sensor weren't very tight. I did notice what could be a backfire when trying to start. It would still start as before, just won't run more than a few seconds.

To recap, it'll run with the stock Zenoah ignition. A new RCEXL ignition has been installed. Fearing a possible bad one, I removed the same ignition from a working G20. Same problem. I've removed everything from the ignition circuit with only a 4 cell, ignition and engine. Same problem.

Since I noticed a possible backfire and the hall sensor screws were not tight at all, could the sensor be out of alignment? I've not seen any method for aligning the sensor. When I installed the new one, I just used a business card for a spacer and pushed the sensor up to it. It's should be perpendicular.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Mr_Grump

Update to my previous post.

Just for giggles.... I left everything as it was with the new ignition and sensor. I disconnected the sensor, the battery and unplugged the RCXL's plug wire.

I put the old Zenoah ignition on the concrete beneath the firewall, connected the sensor lead, ground lead to the engine, battery lead to regulator used by the RCEXL. Connected the Zenoah's spark plug wire, turned on the RX and ignition switches and flipped the prop. Fired and run great....

It ran before on the RCEXL, now it won't. Gees....... :-(