Harlan, I need your help.........
Harlan, I need your help......... A friend of mine bought one of your window switches 2 weeks ago from you and we are having trouble getting it to work properly.
His car is a 1994 Cobra 5.0L 5 speed. We tried all cylinder modes and it keeps cutting in and out as the rpms rise, no matter what we have it set at. Are there certain settings for Fords?
We set the low limit at 2,900 and the high limit at 5,300 rpms. I know it is set right cause I also have your shift light and window switch and they work great, never had any problems with them.
For mine and his, I used a small relay that I got from Radio Shack for $3.99 (PCB mount) and the coil current draw I think is 30ma. As I said before, mine works great.
Is it possible that we didn't tap into the right wire off the coil? The one we used was a tan/yellow wire. Are your products not designed to work with Fords? I figured it they work on a LT1, it should work on a 5.0L.
My friend wanted to buy the MSD unit for like $170 and after he saw how well mine worked, he decided to buy one from you...
Hope to here from you soon.
Bill
His car is a 1994 Cobra 5.0L 5 speed. We tried all cylinder modes and it keeps cutting in and out as the rpms rise, no matter what we have it set at. Are there certain settings for Fords?
We set the low limit at 2,900 and the high limit at 5,300 rpms. I know it is set right cause I also have your shift light and window switch and they work great, never had any problems with them.
For mine and his, I used a small relay that I got from Radio Shack for $3.99 (PCB mount) and the coil current draw I think is 30ma. As I said before, mine works great.
Is it possible that we didn't tap into the right wire off the coil? The one we used was a tan/yellow wire. Are your products not designed to work with Fords? I figured it they work on a LT1, it should work on a 5.0L.
My friend wanted to buy the MSD unit for like $170 and after he saw how well mine worked, he decided to buy one from you...
Hope to here from you soon.
Bill
Re: Harlan, I need your help......... My wife called me at work and read to me what you said. (Our work blocked our email)
We triple checked everything, maybe more...
Basically he is running a stock ignition. He is using a MSD coil, but it looks almost like the factory unit, and it is in the same place and using the same factory wires.
He called MSD and AutoMeter and they both said that when you hookup a window switch and/or shift light to use the tan/yellow wire that goes into the coil. So yes to your question, he tied into that wire about 1-2 inches away from the coil.
I put my DVM on that wire when the car is off (but ignition on) and I am getting 12.5 volts. When the car is running, the voltage drops to about 5 volts (ac setting) or so and increases with rpm. I used the ac setting on my meter because I figured that if the coil pulses, then my meter should pick that up and it did.
So with his application he should have it set to 8 cyl mode right? Is it possible that his MSD coil is causing interference with the window switch somehow?
He wanted me to ask you that if we can't get this to work, would you refund his money?
Thanks again, hopefully we get this working....
Bill
We triple checked everything, maybe more...
Basically he is running a stock ignition. He is using a MSD coil, but it looks almost like the factory unit, and it is in the same place and using the same factory wires.
He called MSD and AutoMeter and they both said that when you hookup a window switch and/or shift light to use the tan/yellow wire that goes into the coil. So yes to your question, he tied into that wire about 1-2 inches away from the coil.
I put my DVM on that wire when the car is off (but ignition on) and I am getting 12.5 volts. When the car is running, the voltage drops to about 5 volts (ac setting) or so and increases with rpm. I used the ac setting on my meter because I figured that if the coil pulses, then my meter should pick that up and it did.
So with his application he should have it set to 8 cyl mode right? Is it possible that his MSD coil is causing interference with the window switch somehow?
He wanted me to ask you that if we can't get this to work, would you refund his money?
Thanks again, hopefully we get this working....
Bill
Re: Harlan, I need your help......... We will try changing his MSD coil back to the stock unit and see if that helps. If it doesn't I can add a resistor in series on the tach input of the window switch.
What value is the resistor on the input of your window switches? I can figure it out but thought I would ask first.
Thanks for getting back to me, we appreaciate the help...
Bill
What value is the resistor on the input of your window switches? I can figure it out but thought I would ask first.
Thanks for getting back to me, we appreaciate the help...
Bill
Re: Harlan, I need your help......... LOL
Don't make him change is coil just to use the window switch. That's silly <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />
There's a voltage divider/filter network on the input to the switch, so it's not just an inline resistor. But running a resistor inline with the switch before the filter will shift the trigger range enough to fix the problem i think.
Don't make him change is coil just to use the window switch. That's silly <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />
There's a voltage divider/filter network on the input to the switch, so it's not just an inline resistor. But running a resistor inline with the switch before the filter will shift the trigger range enough to fix the problem i think.
Re: Harlan, I need your help......... Bill
I've seen one other issue with an aftermarket coil on a stock 5.0 ignition. The coil winding must have more turns than normal, and it seems to keep the voltage at the coil from dropping low enough to trigger the light.
I've been sucessful in getting it to trigger by running a resistor in series with the light/window switch. Like 47k or so in valve. That should shift the range of voltage the input circuit will trigger on.
I can change the input circuit parts if he'd rather do it that way.
If we can't get it working, i'll refund the price less shipping. But I need to get the switch back first <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />
<small>[ April 03, 2002, 12:37 PM: Message edited by: y2khawk ]</small>
I've seen one other issue with an aftermarket coil on a stock 5.0 ignition. The coil winding must have more turns than normal, and it seems to keep the voltage at the coil from dropping low enough to trigger the light.
I've been sucessful in getting it to trigger by running a resistor in series with the light/window switch. Like 47k or so in valve. That should shift the range of voltage the input circuit will trigger on.
I can change the input circuit parts if he'd rather do it that way.
If we can't get it working, i'll refund the price less shipping. But I need to get the switch back first <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />
<small>[ April 03, 2002, 12:37 PM: Message edited by: y2khawk ]</small>
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Verdad Gallardo Re: Harlan, I need your help......... You da Man!!!
Tried a 47K ohm resistor and it worked perfect. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" />
I'm sure you know this but we are using them for our Nitrous kits.
You can tell when the low limit kicks in, but the high limit, it's a little hard to tell cause the car keeps pulling.
If we have any other problems, I'll let you know..
Thanks again,
Bill
Tried a 47K ohm resistor and it worked perfect. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" />
I'm sure you know this but we are using them for our Nitrous kits.
You can tell when the low limit kicks in, but the high limit, it's a little hard to tell cause the car keeps pulling.
If we have any other problems, I'll let you know..
Thanks again,
Bill
