Migual 1.6 Auto, removing alarm leads to comatosed car.

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Thread Bear
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Migual 1.6 Auto, removing alarm leads to comatosed car.

Post by Thread Bear »

As I suspected the alarm system on this car is giving trouble. It keeps going inert. So today I had a look at removing it from the car. The first issue was that I have no key for the switch to turn it on and off. It was left locked off. It turned out the lock was ready to disintegrate, as it is of poor quality. After getting the plastic switch from the bottom of the lock assembly I attempted to manually get this to work. It remained unreliable being corroded and loose fitting.

I followed the pair of wires for this lock back. They were inserted between the spade connector and terminal on one of four wires going into a sensor on the gearbox at the front near the ball joint selector. This forming a switch to this lead. Looking in the varies books I can find no mention of this sensor. My feeling is it is the sensor for the gear selector so it prevents starting in Park and Drive. This sensor is meant to be elsewhere, so is it?

In getting to this point I found the wiring to the coil in a mess. Removed and cleaned up, I attempted to make sense of this lot. I assume there are two sets of supply wires on this Duceller unit, as one set is for the rev counter. I start losing the plot when there is a thing called a 'module' mounted below the coil. What does said 'module' do, no info. Three wires enter the dizzy to empower the points. Seems a bit greedy when one will do. This is all getting modern and complicated. Is the 'module' supposed to be covered in grease? Why?
The Ducellor coil now choose to loose both negative contact spades. Corroded out, nearly, so unable to cope with the rejuvenated spade clips, of a silly small size, they sheared off.

So that job is now stuck till I find a coil made out of something serviceable. Wonder if Bosch is better....

However I have got little further with the carburation. The Weber is not the same as any shown in the manuals. AX? There appears to be no idle control, which I refuse to believe. I fear Mr Botch has been to visit. The carb is being profligate with fuel but such is the amount of gubbins around the carb its hard to work out what is going on. I am no great fan of these fixed jet downdraft efforts, and yet to have had one that really worked as well as it is billed, where it is feeding the side of an engine.

So there appears to be a data problem for accurate info and a quality problem with some of the parts having aged or having been messed about. Not quite the car I was hoping for and it is being shown up by the Trooper, which also has an unreliable after market alarm (trashed that in Wantage, when it started messing me about). That is to be binned also. But the Trooper does not have all these complicated oddities scattered all over the place, being a very bog standard diesel. The one is a poor driving experience that seems argumentative, the other far better than I was expecting. The Messerschmitt arrives home this week and I am far happier getting one of those going. Simple technology with little to go wrong! Miguel looks doomed to move on as it looks to be more work than the other two for less rewarding driving experience and thus will get sidelined for being a problem. Pity.
Miguel - 16 TRS Auto S, light blue, 43k miles - £450
Pluto - 14 E S, White, 105k Miles - in work
Egbert - 19 16v Gti, White, A/C & Leather, - Keeper
Walt - 17 TZD Turbo S, graphite, 70k miles, good op extras - Keeper
Scraper- 17 TZD Turbo E, blue, 208k miles - parts
Homer - 19 TXD E, Red, 189k miles - £250
Gary - 17 TZD Turbo E, 118k miles - in work

'87 Trooper, Borgwards, Saabs, MG ZB, Bellamy Trials, Fiat Jolly & Bianchina, Goggo Dart, Messerschmitt, Heinkel, Bubblecars
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Re: Migual 1.6 Auto, removing alarm leads to comatosed car.

Post by rutter123 »

i had some sort of aftermarket alarm set up on the gti, which i removed as it's wiring was a complete mess, i just one by one traced each wire back- 1 to the coil, 1 to each front door switch, 1 to ignition, 1 to ground, 1 to battery etc etc, luckily all quite basic cut them back removed the whole lot with no issues.
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Re: Migual 1.6 Auto, removing alarm leads to comatosed car.

Post by Thread Bear »

A successful afternoon. Pulled all the ignaro wiring out. Chopped out various bits that made no sense. Striped off the under bonnet ignaro bits off the dead Alfa which seemed to be the same spec as the BX. Nice Bosch coil that comes apart so it can be cleaned and have alternative connections put on it. Cleaned everything up. Picked the bits on condition and got the thing back together. Would appear the starting issue has been resolved and the car revved even more, which suggests something was shagged before. AS far as I can tell all other systems work so I have not binned anything important.
Before playing with the carb I got the jack under and adjusted up the belts from below, so the pump is running spot on. It upsets the tick over when it cuts in. Seems to be running at just inside a minute a click.
The carb remains a mystery. I found what might be an idle adjuster screw but it seems to do nothing. The whole assembly seems to be in permanent stress, but not from the wax piston, which lets go. I begin to wonder if it has been rebuilt incorrectly and one of the arms is inside out or the wrong side of something else and not going to 'off'. The accelerator/power throttle seems to be fine as far as you can check it at opening, while covering up the other throttle venturi, so its a slow running issue, probably.

Quite good progress as it had the potential to be awkward. Lucky having a good coil and stuff handy. Also got to soak some rays up.
Miguel - 16 TRS Auto S, light blue, 43k miles - £450
Pluto - 14 E S, White, 105k Miles - in work
Egbert - 19 16v Gti, White, A/C & Leather, - Keeper
Walt - 17 TZD Turbo S, graphite, 70k miles, good op extras - Keeper
Scraper- 17 TZD Turbo E, blue, 208k miles - parts
Homer - 19 TXD E, Red, 189k miles - £250
Gary - 17 TZD Turbo E, 118k miles - in work

'87 Trooper, Borgwards, Saabs, MG ZB, Bellamy Trials, Fiat Jolly & Bianchina, Goggo Dart, Messerschmitt, Heinkel, Bubblecars
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Re: Migual 1.6 Auto, removing alarm leads to comatosed car.

Post by demag »

I had a Renault 16 TXS (or TSX) many many years ago. I remember cleaning the twin choke Weber and refitting the linkage incorrectly. I got two chokes instantaneous power! Very entertaining in heavy traffic but great on the motorway.
Dave.

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Re: Migual 1.6 Auto, removing alarm leads to comatosed car.

Post by Way2go »

Thread Bear wrote: I followed the pair of wires for this lock back. They were inserted between the spade connector and terminal on one of four wires going into a sensor on the gearbox at the front near the ball joint selector. This forming a switch to this lead. Looking in the varies books I can find no mention of this sensor. My feeling is it is the sensor for the gear selector so it prevents starting in Park and Drive. This sensor is meant to be elsewhere, so is it?
This is the combined inhibitor switch and reversing light switch.
Thread Bear wrote:Three wires enter the dizzy to empower the points. Seems a bit greedy when one will do. This is all getting modern and complicated. Is the 'module' supposed to be covered in grease? Why?
I don't have any points for M3.1 but I suspect you don't have a 1 wire, grounded the other side set of mechanical points either! The sensor on yours will likely be magnetic or an opto that requires power for its solid state circuit, hence more wires.
1991 BX19GTi Auto
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Re: Migual 1.6 Auto, removing alarm leads to comatosed car.

Post by Thread Bear »

Left Dizzy alone as no reason to fiddle. But it sounds unfix-able if it fails. I made my own ignaro for the strokers (Messerschmitt/Goggomobil) as it allowed some advance retard they were not fitted with. So I am not averse to technology, but for ease of living with a classic I choose to be rude about complications not road side repairable. My electronic mod was demountable back to points in about 3 minutes.

As it happened it was not technology but quality of fittings, I think, that upset the cars running. Crap switch on the alarm, Poor coil poles leading to electrolytic action degrading the terminals.

Initial reading suggested the plug/switch was hidden from access. The advantage of a resource like this forum is a search can reveal answer as to what is what. The gearbox switch having reverse sensor too will be the extra wire. Makes sense. And you can get at this one! Easy.

To find a few pics of an AX carb in the next few days. Seems it is a mod and it might have been done here - or need to be done here! All learning experience and good for the grey matter. If the car drives well someone else will be more interested in it as I am not convinced its for me. One thought I did have is whether the carb has a fuel cut off switch as part of the isolation circuit. This solenoid jobs are prone to fail. I wonder if this is what has happened here and the fuel feed is mucked up in some way. Must check that option out.
Miguel - 16 TRS Auto S, light blue, 43k miles - £450
Pluto - 14 E S, White, 105k Miles - in work
Egbert - 19 16v Gti, White, A/C & Leather, - Keeper
Walt - 17 TZD Turbo S, graphite, 70k miles, good op extras - Keeper
Scraper- 17 TZD Turbo E, blue, 208k miles - parts
Homer - 19 TXD E, Red, 189k miles - £250
Gary - 17 TZD Turbo E, 118k miles - in work

'87 Trooper, Borgwards, Saabs, MG ZB, Bellamy Trials, Fiat Jolly & Bianchina, Goggo Dart, Messerschmitt, Heinkel, Bubblecars
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