no spark this morning
 

Morning everyone after arriving at my ladies house without incident last night i awoke to find my 240 completely refused to fire up..strong smell of petrol after several attempts to start and no spark..To be honest i opened the bonnet and just stared into the bay..you just know when a car is not going to cough in your favour..now my question is do i replace crank position sensor..ignition module..renix coil pack or all three as the car is now a train journey and fair old walk away from me..I got the cps on order but the ignition module and coil pack was confusing me as there were so many...Thanks .honestjoe.ps i failed to say that bertha is a 240dl 1988 E reg and a b230k engine.

I would have started with cap and rotor tbh.

The coil's are available new but the ignition module is not

Are you certain you have the correct crank sensor as the correct direct fit sensor has been out of production for some time

Thanks i did pop the dizzy off all looked good to me.Perhaps i did panic a bit ..will go back over today to have a more considered assesment..hj.

I've had two cars with B230K Renix systems and one used the same CPS as the later LH systems, popped into a hole in the bell housing, and the other was on an alloy bracket that bolted to the back of the block.

My experience of CPS is that they become erratic, sometimes causing a failure to start, but then suddenly working for a while until failing again. So I've usually had fair warning and have managed eventually to get started again and get home.

Ignition amplifiers otoh (does this car have one, or similar?) fail suddenly without warning and then never work.
Caps and rotors and HT leads get erratic and misfire, but don't in my experience suddenly fail and totally die.

The main fault I had with this set-up was the vacuum operated cold-start sensor failing, causing the engine to fail to start or cut out before it had warmed up. For some time I ran it by clamping the two pipes to fool it into allowing a cold start, then removing the clamp once warmed up.

This system is so complicated you ideally need a spare set of everything, so you can swap things one by one for diagnosis.

Thanks Clifford...agreed..most components start playing around before they do one...This was a case of car working ..car not...Went over today and spent some time checking things over to no avail..still no spark..Coil seems to check out ok on ohm reading ..ignition module looks its age with green swarf on the bottom..(dont know how to check this?)..cps..well i"m not looking forward to that one!..i feel at this point in my life i might get a little man out to sort it as i"m a hands on sort of guy and this is just i feel out of my league..blower motor no problem..trailing arm bushes..no problem..but this..i feel kind of powerless..thanks for the replies gentlemen.hj.

Hi all ..jeez..what a day..managed to get bolt out of crank position sensor (firewall heater hoses side..but hard as i try i cannot get the sensor off the bracket.its very tight 30years old tight..is this how the bracket gets broken?..any tips?..am i doing something wrong?..there is power to the ignition coil and seems to check out on the ohm readings..but i may change it any way just to eliminate it as a culprit..cleaned all fuses and holders..all earth straps, connectors..I"m also wondering about some welding i had done at my local garage to pass mot..for a short time after i got it back there was a delay in shutting off the engine..not like a carbon build up run on but normal tickover..could the ecu be fried..r hj.egards

ok..been out again this mornig in another attempt to remove cps from bracket..will not budge..i read somewhere that the cps has a glue as well as the bolt..how can i soften this?..i tried soaking carefully with penertrating oil and a smear of brake fluid..no joy..i did consider removing bracket as i can get to one bolt without too much trouble..but the other side might be possible from underneath..i thought there might be a danger of the bolts falling into the bellhousing..why the glue..to stop vibration.as a last resort i might use a sparing amount of celulos thinners to soften glue..it will probably start to melt the cps casing but only plan to use around base..hj...ps i can why so many have broken this bracket.

This is worrying. I do hope some members with experience of this task will contribute soon ....

I've no experience of removing this kind of CPS with bracket other than from an engine that was off the car.
But you have established that in principle it is do-able, as you say one of bolts is accessible at least.
Two thoughts:
Try a small ring spanner? at least to get it started.

Would lowering the gearbox an inch help? Just put a jack under the support crossmember and undo the 4 securing bolts. (Tip from past experience - replace two of the bolts with extra long ones first to help with alignment)

Thanks for the advice..before i left the car today i put a poultice around the sensor of wd 40 and brake fluid on a rag and covered in a plastic bag to stop evaporation.I think after some disscussion that the aluminium has reacted with the plastic?..quite how i dont know?..but trust me when i tell you they do not want to be parted..will try again tomorrow..Sadly clifford i only have a sissor jack which has tried to kill me in the past..but could still do the job at a push..thanks..hj.