Hey y'all. I got a DLE35RA from Troy Built. Been trying for weeks to get this engine started with no spark. Looking down the plug cap, I see nothing that is inside to make contact with the plug to get a spark. Would some one be kind enough to take a shot of what is inside your DLE plug cap to contact the spark plug?I know the plug shot is pretty bad butthere is nothing I can see inside that would be to transfer spark. I have other gas engines and they all have an "element that contacts the spark plug. Would be appreciated. Attching a pic of what I have in my plug cap and what is waiting to fly. Thanks in advance.

That is the way every CDI I have looks.  Check the connector on the Hall sensor and make sure you haven't bent any pins when hooking it up.  Ask me how I know 

no no bent pins.  that photo is seriously misleading.  Gonna try again.  Got 6V to the unit and an electrican friend has a tester that can see current coming down the cable to the plug cap but nothing is getting to the plug

Are you using the DLE spark plug?  They have a bad reputation, mine worked but many throw them away first thing.  Do you have the plug full seated in the cap?  It is a bugger to get it in until it locks on and harder to get it out when it's not in the engine.  Do you have anothe ignition to test the plug in?

Plug is the upgraded cm6. Plug cap is fully seated. ATM I do not have another ignition to test the engine.

Bubba

I have a DLE35RA but haven't installed it in a plane yet.

I looked inside the plug boot and can see what looks like one or two wires going across the tiny hole at the top of the boot cap. The top of your spark plug should make contact with the wire.

I have done a replacement of the boot cap on a DLE20. If it utilizes the same method as the DLE35 you will have a resistor that will stick into the core of the ignition cable on one side and the other side ( that your spark plug will touch) will be a wire that touches a tiny spring in the top of the cap.

I don't see a tiny spring in mine but I do see a wire that the spark plug would touch.

Mike

Have a look at the sticky there is a test you can do on dle/rcexel ignitions
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8673009/tm.htm look at post 24

I just looked again. I can see the tiny wire spring that the resistor wire would touch. Not east to see but it is there. It could be possible that when your ignition module was made they omitted the resistor. You might need to shine a flashlight into the cap to see what I'm trying to describe.

Mike

You may want toget a plug cap kit and just replace it. Sucks on a new engine, but the plug does need to contact the resistor.

Yeah no spring in mine or wire. Must be defective.

Ok Thanks

Thanks for the confirmation Vertical. This does suck. Missed 2 great weekends with just PERFECT weather.

Looking at the photo and looking into the cap, light appears to be reflecting from the spring in the top of the cap. Perhaps the cap isn't assembled correctly or maybe there is another problem ..... but that sure looks like the spring to me. Some of my spring contacts are very hard to see.

Buubba,

One thing nobody mentioned is removal of the spring clip on the base of plug cap. It takes one heck of a lot of force to seat the cap with the clip still on and very difficult to remove the cap when clip is seated. The first thing I do with all spark plug caps is replace the clip with a silicone rubber ring. Holds securely enough but is easy to install and remove.

I saw that you mentioned that the plug cap is seated but try removing the clip and reinstall. Just a thought. The idea is to eliminate all obvious things first before going into more complex investigation

Great idea

Hi Matt, you are clearly one of the more knowledgeable people on here, however I fail to see how if he is useing the stock plug cap pushed passed the hex head, how will that not be makeing a ground?
The plug cap, as far as I know, is meant to be an electrical connection between it and the spark plug hex, as long as there is a solid connection there (with the backup of the spring) I don't see how this could cause a problem.
Granted your alternative may be more user friendly.
Matt, I'm not trying to aggrevate you, just don't understand the logic of how your alternative could fix this.

I am not offended. Perhaps a bit more explanation is in order. My point isn't so much the alternate solution I offered for securing the cap to the plug, eventhough it works better than anything else I've seen or heard about. It deals with the false impression one can get regarding whether the cap is fully seated, with the circular spring clip in place

The circular spring clip surrounding the lip of the cap is very stiff. It takes quite a bit of force to seat the cap when the clip is in place. One canpush the capinto position over the plugand may think it is seated but in fact is not.If it's not seated it's not making proper contact

Removal of said clip reduces the amount of forcethe capneeds to seat. One only needs to do this acouple times to understand the real amount of force the caps need to seat either way, with clip and without clip.

And like I said, it's just a thought. If a properly seated cap is not the issue, then it's something else less obvious

Have you tried to put the plug in the cap and ground the end of the plug (plug out of engine) and see if there is a spark at the plug electrodes when
you turn over the engine?
You might want to do this in a place where the light is dim.

No need to ground the plug to the engine. The ground return completes the circuit through the plug lead shielding. If the spark is good you should be able to easily see it in any normal light as well as hear it.