V 12 S3 engine stopped without warning

[colin gray]

Hi, all can anyone advise I was driving my s3 e type at around 30 mph when the engine just stopped, no miss fires no banging no smoke just silence.
I was about 100 yards from a friends so coasted in to his drive and recovered the car later. I suspected fuel pump or water in fuel as had just filled at a supermarket. I decided to check if it was a complete spark failure as a first measure due to the pump ticking as usual after the car sat for an hour or so. I took out the coil lead from the distributor cap and held it against the engine and turned the engine over and have no spark at all.
Has anyone had an opus unit shut down in such a manner or do they break down in an intermittent manner only?
any suggestions welcome.
Cheers :?

[D COUPE]

Ignition switch.....crusing along outside lane then nothing.........
pulled off nothing wait a minute or 3 ....as if nothing had happened.

No feed to coil?

DC

[colin gray]

Okay Thanks will check coil feed and ignition switch out have been looking in the manual so will get the values and check it all out with multimeter, I did try it when I got home but it still refuses to show any sign of life which I guess should be easier to track down than something intermittent.
cheers

[colin gray]

Okay here is an update I have been out in the garage and played with the engine electrical bits and a test meter, results were, Coil tested to be just in tolerance of voltage test with a reading of 4.2 v, a voltage drop test produced 1.8 v Ballast resistor showed a reading of 1.0 on R1 should be 7.6-9.2 on R2 0.84 should be 0.72-0.8 and resistor 3 was within tolerance at 0.9. I did notice however that the tacho side R1 had no wires to it, they were just joined together remote from the resistor? not sure why that is but rev counter does work most of the time requiring the occasional tap to wake it up.
The amplifiers and pick up units all seemed to check out okay and during the test the ballast resistor did get warm.
Now here is the thing as I said before at least its failed fully so wont run again until the problem is traced and fixed!!
While pulling wires on and off I noticed the coil was making a faint cracking noise so I held a sheet over it (to cut out light) and re produced the noise.I found it was tracking from the spade terminals to the coil nose area of the insulation where the HT lead goes, I then put it all back together and tried to start it and hey presto it started. I think playing around has reset things or something like that. I have ordered a new coil and new ballast resistor on the basis of the readings I obtained and the fact the coil was tracking across the insulation.
Has any one got any ideas on the tacho wires being joined remote from the resistor? :?

[colin gray]

Well latest is car has been starting okay, so I replaced the vacuum unit on the distributor as well as the o rings in the needle adjusters of the carburettors (losing oil from dashpots)and now it will not start again although everything has been put back as it should be. I do not have a spark from the coil when the engine is turned over, I did notice a kick from the engine as I turned off the ignition and when I checked it out the coil lead sparks when the ignition is switched on or off but not when the engine is turned over. I tried hot wiring the coil to no avail? :?

[42south]

Hello
This sounds so much like an Opus failure mode. I went through a year or so trying to sort mine out.
There is a simple solution which has cured my v12, in fact it has never run better.
SNG sell a kit containing a CEI ign module in the original case. It also comes with a new ballast, and coil, and a totally rebuilt distributor.
The CEI module is the real beauty of it. It was fitted to the later v12's as an answer to the troublesome Opus. What's even better is that it's made by ford, is a solid state module, doesn't mind heat, and replacements can be bought on eBay for around $40