Ignition Mode Relay

[jsz]

I have a 1978 124 spider 49 state car I am restoring. Took a great deal of pictures prior to tearing it apart, all fine and dandy but took the pictures prior to degreasing so difficult to trace color and location. Any how working on the fast idle , idle stop and I have a few wires that I can identify but I can not find the relay they go into. The wires are a blue one and gray/red and pink wire. According to the wire diagram it should go to the ignition mode relay, can not find it. Any idea where it should be and if needed.
I believe portions of the emission controls were removed long ago, not sure if this was part of that removal. I have yet been unable to find the EGR by pass valve or where it would have been placed.

Also, I know the wrong section, however the valves in the pictures each have an outlet towards the inner fender, about 1/4" dia. Where do they plumb to?

And a dumb question, how to attach an image?

Thanks you, Jeff

[vandor]

The actual relay is under the glovebox, but the wires likely went to the thermo switch under the intake manifold.
I would not worry about it, I'd even remove the valves from the left inner fender...

The ignition mode relay retarded the timing once the engine was warm, making it run like crap.

[jsz]

I guess that was where I was going with the question, what can I remove with out affecting the engine operation. Our county does not inspect for emissions, so no issue there. Is a plug kit available for the removal of the relays and etc.

Thank you, Jeff

[vandor]

I would only remove things are are visible and large: air pump, its hoses, its injection manifold in the head (a plug kit is available to plug the 4 holes it leaves behind next to the spark plugs). Also the 2 electrovalves bolted to the inner fender.
You can just tie their wires to the rest of the harness with zip ties.
You can remove the vacuum lines that went to these valves, aswell as the EGR. You need to cap off any nipples left open on the manifold. No need to cap off the vacuum thermo switch that sits between the carb and the camtower.

[lvacordian]

I have a 78 and I'm in the process of prepping for CA emissions testing and I discovered that I have a non working ignition mode relay temp switch. Does anyone have one for sale? Ultimately the result is that the car will only run on one set of points (the running points) instead of the dual point system that was intended for starting and running. I determined all of this by pulling the ignition mode relay and jumping power to each set of points seperately. I've found over the last 5 years that the car has been difficult to start; especially in the cold weather, and once it has started it runs horribly during the warmup period. I recently discovered that the previous owner bypassed the thermo switch, and rewired the distributer leads in order to set the car up to run exclusively on the running points. Fast forward to present time, i rewired everything correctly and have found that I cannot get the car to start on the running points unless the distributer is advanced, and turned counterclockwise as far as i can go. Once I do this the car will the start and i can adjust it 0 TDC but then it won't restart. The car will start up immediately when set to run on the starting points when the distributor is set to 0 TDC but i cant get the idle down to 850. I'm totally stuck, any ideas on how to make this right?

[vandor]

Ask Mark at Allisons or Kelly at Wine Country Motors if they have one of those switches.
Both of these guys have a lot of experience getting Spiders to pass emissions.

Once you have passed emission you should disable the relay and set the initial timing to 10 degrees BTDC, as the car will run a lot better that way.

[lvacordian]

How well does the pertronix electronic system work on the 78's, and is is legal for all 50 states? I know that pertronix is based out of southern CA so it must be. Also if I go over to electronic ignition then what about all the wiring for the ignition mode and diverter bypass relays; Do i bypass those, and if so how will the electronic ignition module know when to give the distributer 10 degrees of advance during a cold startup if its not hooked up to the thermo-switches? The distributer is supposed to be set at 0 TDC. I'm looking at purchasing one of these setups from autoricambi, and am wondering if I'll also need to have the pertronix coil with this. I noticed that the pertronix catalog does not list the 78 124 in their catalog, and that the MR-LS1 only goes up to 77. Will this unit work for my application? Lastly where would I find the distributer's number? I can't seem to find that.

[vandor]

I will ask Pertronix if it's CA legal.
The distributor's number is stamped on the base just above where it slides into the camtower.

[lvacordian]

Which color wire tells the ignition mode relay that the oil pressure is good, and where does it come off of? I have a a 78 124 with every available wiring schematic and it's still not clear to me. My ignition mode relay is not energizing on startup, and so the car is starting on the retarded running points rather than the advanced starting points. The only way my car will start now is if I advance the distributer by 10 degrees, but then the car is always running at 10 degrees advance, with the idle way too high, and the catalytic converter regularly overheating. My understanding is that the engine is always supposed to start on the starting points with the 10 degrees advance that is built in, but then switch over to the retarded running points ( with 0 degrees advance) once the oil pressure switch and thermo switch (under intake manifold) close. My car is going in for smog inspection and so I have to have idle speed and timing absolutely correct, otherwise it will not pass. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[vandor]

The ignition mode relay is not connected to the oil pressure switch. It is connected to a temperature switch on the bottom of the intake manifold. The engine would run on the advanced set of points when it was cold, and when the coolant warmed up it switched to the retarded set.

On the '78 there is nothing connected to the oil pressure switch that affects the running of the engine. On the 1974-77 Spiders that had an electric fuel pump the oil pressure switch would shut the electric pump off via a relay if oil pressure was lost.