Heater ignition coil -anyone use after market?

[reluctantartist]

My heater coil isn't working I did the tests on it and it the resistance is too high on it . and it does not spark even when I ground terminal 1. So has any one used the aftermarket version? The price is a little steep but I need to have the heater working the part number is UF-381. Rockauto has them.
http://www.rockauto.com/dbphp/x,catalog,154,partnum,UF381,d,STANDARD_MOTOR_PRODUCTS_UF381.html
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1982 Westy, 1974 412 Variant... Yes, Aircooled's are great! Oh and I do have modern computer controlled vehicles too, but I just don't care about them.

[raygreenwood]

They actually have them? Nice to know!
I have a bucket of them. I will check them when I get home tomorrow. If you need one pm me. Ray

[reluctantartist]

Thanks Ray, i put it in and it fired right up. now to gt it to burn off all the cud that may be in it from none use and the rust preventative wax the got sprayed everywhere under the car...just when i finally got the heat exchangers to not smell so bad.
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1982 Westy, 1974 412 Variant... Yes, Aircooled's are great! Oh and I do have modern computer controlled vehicles too, but I just don't care about them.

[raygreenwood]

While you are at this....the best safest mod to do is get a 3/16" brass pressure union, polish one end slightly larger on the ferrule and hole in the nut so it fits on the heater fuel inlet. Then get about 8' of 3/16 steel line and make a steel fuel line running all the way back through the fuel line loops in the body.....and connect to the pump with about 3" of rubber line and two clamps.

Back in the days of good fuel line the heater fuel line had to be replaced religiously every other, year in heavy usage because the heat rots it out, quick at the heater fuel connection.

I dont trust modern rubber line at all. I went to a steel line about mid 1990s and never had 5o replace it again.
the ferrule and nut stays on the beater inlet permanently. Just add some teclon tape to the nut threads anyyime you have it loose. Much safer. Ray

[ClassicCamper]

I fixed the wires for my gas heater. (PO cut all the wiring and bypassed the fuel line). Also, had the combustion motor out and points are opening and closing properly. Verified clean contact surfaces on points with Ohm meter.

Issue: Heater fans, fuel pump and glow plug all working. Smell gas coming into combustion chamber. However, the spark portion of glow plug isn't sparking. I also took a spare spark plug (one for a car engine, not heater) and hooked that up. No spark there either. Any suggestions?

[raygreenwood]

There are a lot of interconnects here.
It could be the coil.
It could be one of the small yellow and clear inductors....those things that look like capacitors inside of each set of points.....
.it could be timing out (it has a,safety switch/timer that stops ignition if it takes too long to start combustion.....but it should stop fuel pump as well)

Is the fuel pump,clicking.....but you are not getting combustion?

The gas smell is caused......as long as you have no internal rust throughs of any kind.....which are exceedingly rare...... by leakage of the o-rings at the combustion blower joint and possibly minor damage to the fiberglass mantle just inside of the combustion blower inlet. This allows the fuel which is not igniting....to run back down, leak past the o-ringed area and get sucked into outer chamber which has the heated air in it.

I know it sounds like a lot of work.....but the best way i have found to make sure the joint between blower and heat exchanger is correct....is to disconnect all of the wires snd fuel line, disconnect the exhaust pipe.....and remove the four 10mm nuts holding the unit in. Pull the unit out.....and reconnect the blower properly with new o-rings (actually i use high temp silicone).......this is also important because the blower unit has an exact clock position it must be installed in....and there is a registration notch that must be precisely engaged or it will leak fuel into the air exchange chamber.

Also....if its not combusting.....the only parts that should still be running within a minute or so.....is the combustion blower and the air circulation blower inside of the engine compartment. The fuel puml and spark/glow plug should cease if there is no combustion.

This feature is checked and acted on by the combustion chamber probe installed to the left of the combustion blower when you arr looking right at the combustion blower from the left side of the car.

If a couple of minutes go by.....and the pump is still clicking and there is no combustion happening....then something is either wrong with the probe or wires are not connected....or not connected properly.

When you turn on the unit it starts a timing circuit inside of the dash switch that allows an initial run of the fuel pump and glow plug . A certain short interval of run time is given by the switch in the dash.

If the initial run interval expires and the resulting combustion heat not yet closed the thermo switch inside of the combustion probe......glow plug AND fuel pump should cease to function. This is a safty function.

Typically if the heater has not run for quite a while....there will be no fuel in the fuel line and it takes a while to fill it back up with the metering pump. So.....its common that the system times out before fuel reaches the chamber. If this happens.....turn it all the way off.....and reatart it. Its kind of like blipping the fuel pump on the fuel injection.

Once fuel reaches the combustion chamber....and if the glow/spark plug is working.....combustion starts right away and temperature rises quickly and connection is made at the combustion chamber probe.

You have more than one issue going on right now.
1. It sounds like either you have a bad coil or a bad spark plug.....or incorrect or bad connections to either. In that case .....fuel will reach the combustion chamber.....but upon no ignition.....will quickly shut down both fuel pump and coil operation and the blower will contjnue to run for a timed period to clear fuel from the combustion chamber.

2. You have the classic o-ring leak at the combustion blower to heater chamber joint...2hich is allowing fuel vapor into the heated air exchanger.

Also.....make note. It sometimes takes a while as i noted....for the line to fill up and combustion to begin. Everything may,be workkng correctly. .....and you are leaking fuel at the blower joint.
Make a note to observe whether the fuel pump is still clicking and the fan running....and no combustion is happening. If that is the case.....you have a wiring or temp probe projlem and its VERY dangerous. Turn it off now!

WARNING!

While you are working this out....keep a fire extinguisher around.....and for Gods sake....make sure you have new fuel lines.....and a small hose clamp has been installed at the top end inlet near the glow plug. If not....fuel commonly leaks here as the hose gets hot and expands....and has burned many cars to the ground this way.

This may be what the whole problem is....and its,very common. If the fuel line is,leaking at the inlet elbow near the glow plug......its only getting a small portion of the fuel into the chamber. Combustion will start....but put out only very low heat.

Meanwhile....fuel is running all over the heater top and dripping down.....and when it gets hot enough....your car will go up in smoke.

Also....make sure the coil wires are hooked up properly. There are + and minus markings on it. Also the brown ground wire for the glow plug goes the center. Make sure its hooked up properly. Ray

[ClassicCamper]

1) Its not timing out, as it will do that after about 10 minutes and I recognize that condition..

2) Fuel pump is clicking with no combustion.

3) To clafify, the reason I smell gas is because I took out glow plug, disconnected it and put my nose in glow plug hole when heater was running. It is getting gas up there.

4) Would a car spark plug work to check coil operation? (Ground spark plug, turn off fuel pump, start up heater and check for spark)?? If not any suggestions for a coil function test?

5) Vice-versa, if I hooked glow plug up to one of the engine dizzy wires, would I be able to verify if it's spark operation? Note: Glow plug portion works.

[raygreenwood]

[ClassicCamper]

Thanks Ray, yes the wires to glow plug are on correctly. If they get reversed, the red fuse under the seat will constantly blow. (learned this the hard way). I had the glow plug unscrewed and noticed it does indeed glow bright orange.

Connections to heat probe under car check out. If they are unplugged, fuel pump will not click. I did the resistance check and that is Ok.

We were both sorta right with the cut-off. Mine shuts off after 7 minutes of not firing. Exhaust pipe smells like fuel.

I hope its not the coil, lol. It looks like a bear to get to. I think I can get the combustion motor out again if need be without removing the rear suspension.

Will try spark plug test today. Thanks so much

[ClassicCamper]

I am getting power to the coil. (around 11 volts) Still no ignition. Any idea as to next step or how to test coil?

Thanks, -Ron

[raygreenwood]

I will have to dig through my notes. You need to make sure the points and inductor in the fan unit are working and the fan plug is providing power through that connection. Ray

[ClassicCamper]

Thanks for looking into this, Ray. I'm almost positive that the points are functioning correctly as I tested them (on both sides of combustion motor) and they opened and closed.

So, if I have power to the coil. (enough to run a car air compressor) I'm thinking that either coil is faulty or the glow-spark plug is.

reluctantartist: Do you recall what resistance test you performed to determine coil was bad? Thanks

[raygreenwood]

[ALLWAGONS]