Manifold Heater Ignition Unit

[Wildchild467]

I have 2 flame heater ignition units and both do not work. One of the ignition units buzzes but no spark comes out of it. you can feel a little voltage if i touched my hand to the spark plug wire though. The second Ignition unit does not work at all. These two ignition units are different that one is longer than the other. Was there a better design ignition unit than another?

Seeing that some of these dont work and are a sealed unit, has anybody manged to take one apart and fix it? I know we are all ingenious with some of our fixes so maybe ill get the pipe cutter out and see what makes these tick...or should i say spark. It seems like there is a set of ignition points in there that may be bad or something (hence the weak spark i get with the longer ignition unit).

 

[cranetruck]

Of course I had to take one apart.
It is basically a coil, a relay (vibrator) and several capacitors. I'm sure that it could be repaired by replacing the faulty part(s), but it would be far less expensive/troublesome to get a new take-off unit. The spark plug should be gapped at 0.1 inches and remember that the spark plug wire casing is the ground.

 

[Wildchild467]

good information! so what is the difference between the long style and short style? i know its almost the same as saying whats the difference between the long air packs and the short ones, but was there an improved design ignition unit(long or short)?