Was working on the Dart again yesterday, and her dad and I were trying to figure out why it was running rough, so he busts out this old oscilliscope that you hook up to the ignition system, and it gives you a waveform of each spark plug's firing pattern and tells you exactly what's wrong.

Though it's what we both suspected: bad wires.

Thing even has a tach built in. I want one of these things!

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'74 Duster w/ HEI ignition, beat to snot suspension, A904, 8.25" 3.55 SG rear, still being tuned up and gets 17 MPG

Know how they always build a better idiot? That's me

Scopes are indeed nifty tools. I've used handheld ones too.

My buddy got one of those, but it's the cabinet sized roll around one for $50 from a gas station that was 'closing shop'....

Everytime a problem arose with any car he'd roll that thing up and plug it in, you could see variances in the spark in each wire when tested, what the timing looked like, even plotted some weird pattern while the distributor advanced....neat tool, wish I had more on time with one.


cool,

-D.Idiot

Yeah I'd love a handheld one. This one's pretty burly. About the size of a large lunchbox.

could be a great tuning tool, since it tells you when the plug gap is too wide or too narrow. I see much experimenting ahead

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'74 Duster w/ HEI ignition, beat to snot suspension, A904, 8.25" 3.55 SG rear, still being tuned up and gets 17 MPG



Know how they always build a better idiot? That's me

I have a handheld 4 channel digital scope/multimeter. Can hook it up to the engine, and one person drive, while another looks for the problem. By the time I get proficient with everything it can do, it will be obsolete.
It is even capable of a dynamic compression test based on starter current draw, as each cylinder comes up on compression stroke.

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Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Valiant Signet 225 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170

What's the name, how much did it cost, and where'd you get it?

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'74 Duster w/ HEI ignition, beat to snot suspension, A904, 8.25" 3.55 SG rear, still being tuned up and gets 17 MPG



Know how they always build a better idiot? That's me

It is called "Insite" by interro systems. Purchased through Matco tools, about 5-6 yrs ago. With all the different adapters, approx $4,000. This is not a hobbiest tool. I used to have my own shop, and still have most of my equipment.

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Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Valiant Signet 225 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170

Measuring relative compression based on pattern of starter current draw-now THAT'S a smart idea. I never thought of that, but it makes perfect sense. A word of caution-I wouldn't hook a regular oscilloscope to a sparkplug wire. That sounds like a good way to ruin a perfectly good oscilloscope. I'm sure the automotive type is designed to handle the high voltages present on plug wires.

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Everyone driving slower than me is a moron. Everyone driving faster than me is an idiot. With all these morons and idiots on the road, I can't get anywhere!

Yeah this is an automotive one, and it's inductive. Clamps onto the outside of the coil wire, and then another part clamps onto whichever plug wire you wanna check.

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'74 Duster w/ HEI ignition, beat to snot suspension, A904, 8.25" 3.55 SG rear, still being tuned up and gets 17 MPG



Know how they always build a better idiot? That's me