I have been a member of this forum for a while now and had read about the horror stories if you had a failure of one of the banks then you were pouring unburt gasoline into the exhaust and when it got to the super hot catalytic converter then you could be in for a serious marshmallow roast. Yikes. I didn't want that and was doing some other work to get the '89 convertible into a little more reliable state and deleted the cats during that process a few years back.

Yesterday while taking her for the second spin of the Spring I was at a stop sign and felt the idle change over and get just a little rough. When I started to accelerate away I noticed a considerable loss of power and from what I remember reading years back I figured I'd lost a bank and proceeded directly home where I popped the hood and made sure nothing was too hot. I seem to have lost the entire right side bank. I was sure glad I was able to make it home without a fire or being stranded.

I have been looking on the forum last night and today for the thread/topic of this that I had read in the past. I believe it was the way the Marelli rotor worked in that there are basically 2 six cylinder rotors in the distributor and if 1 fails it takes out that bank. I also remember a way to modify the rotor and filling with a dielectric compound as a solution so that the current doesnt' find an alternate rout to ground.

Can anybody give me a synopsis of what I need to do to get it fixed or point me to the tread that covered that. Thanks in advance.

 

For me one of my ignition coils was bad, the right side bank is the A bank I believe. Which will be your lower ignition coil. If you have a multi meter you can measure the ohms of each coil and see if they match up.

 

Hi jnporcello

This could be the 'Thread' you're looking for

Power loss burning smell Power loss Burning Smell

Take off your Distributor Cap and look for signs of Burning or Cracks in the Cap

 

Distributor is one possibility but it could also be a power module or coil failure since they all bank specific.

 

When that happened to me, it was a coil. If your dizzy looks fine, that's probably the next place to check.

 

I agree with Baxtor: check the ignition amp modules on the radiator along with coils (swap cables and coil leads)...and, if that is the problem come back to this group as the ridiculous prices (even for Jaguar parts) can be avoided with an equivalent third party unit from places like RockAuto

 

Thanks for the help and pointing me in the right direction. I'll let you know what I find when I get some time to check her out.

 

Well, it wasn't the easy fix. I tried the modules and no luck there. Now to dig into coil and distributor...

I recall a fix to the rotor where you ad an insulating material into the center of it and something about grinding down a part of either the rotor or distributor also. Anyone have a link of the that DIY handy?

Plugs, wires, and rotors are new within about 3,000 miles, but about 3 or 4 years. But come to think of it, it was running a little rough at idle, which makes me think I was getting a misfire and shorted the rotor?

 

Hi jnporcello

This could be what you are looking for

Here is the Link: Marelli Fix from Safari

 

Ignition Module VE520225 Cambiare 1637546 V86BB12A199AA is a suitable cheap replacement for the marelli ones which cost their weight in gold.