The engine ignition system is one of the main vehicle systems. Thanks to her, we start the car and can move it along the road. In our country, there are still quite a lot of vehicles with contact ignition. The capacitor is one of its elements. It usually does not fail, but drivers should always be ready for this. Checking and replacing it on the road does not cause any difficulties.
It is necessary
- - ohmmeter;
- - crank handle (curve starter);
- - portable lamp
Instructions
Step 1
Take the instrument with an ohmmeter. Connect the output of the capacitor to its body, discharge it. Connect one probe of the ohmmeter to the tip of the wire, the second to the body (switch the device to the upper measurement limit). With a working capacitor, the arrow will sharply deviate towards "0", and then smoothly return to the "∞" symbol. If you change the polarity, the arrow will deviate even more towards "zero". Replace defective capacitor.
Step 2
Disconnect the ignition coil wire and the capacitor wire from the breaker clip. Take a portable lamp, it will make it possible to check the breakdown of the capacitor on the car body. Connect it to the breaker terminal. Switch on the ignition. The capacitor is considered faulty if the lamp lights up at the same time. It is used to reduce burning of the breaker contacts and increase the secondary voltage. Connect a capacitor in parallel to them. When the contacts open, while the gap is at the minimum value, a spark jumps, as a result of which it accumulates a charge. Each ignition system has its own capacitor. Its capacitance is usually located in the range of 0, 17-0, 35 microfarad. For the contact system of cars of the VAZ family, its value is 0, 20-0, 25 μF. In the event of a deviation in the capacitance of the capacitor, the secondary voltage decreases. When charging or discharging a capacitor, it does not exceed 5 kV.
Step 3
Disconnect the black wire coming from the ignition coil from the breaker clip, disconnect the capacitor wire from the breaker. Switch on the ignition. Make a touch between them. The capacitor will be defective in the event of a spark. The next way is to charge it with a high voltage current from the ignition coil, and then discharge it onto the car body. If a discharge spark appears between the ground and the capacitor wire with an audible click, then it is serviceable. If no spark is observed, then the capacitor is broken.
Step 4
Disconnect the capacitor. Take the crank and start cranking the engine. Remove the ignition distributor cap and turn on the ignition. A symptom of a capacitor malfunction is excessive arcing of the breaker contacts at this time. If a spark appears too weak between the body and the central high-voltage wire, as well as if the sparking of the breaker contacts is strong enough, the capacitor is faulty and needs to be replaced.
