Opti Options??? 96 LT4
Intermediate
Joined: Feb 2011
Posts: 33
Likes: 0
Hum, interesting point's brought up here. As an electronics tech I can tell you that LED's are very robust, that includes receivers. I was brought into reality by one of the posts, unless you have experienced a major high voltage issue, the electronics should be ok,,that is should be ok. so I would be interested to know, those of you that have a bad OPti's out. Take a cotton swab with rubbing alcohol and swab both the transmitter's and receiver's. (the disk rotates between them) Then look at the swab to see if it has some contaminates on it. let us all know? if you do get yuck off of it, reinstall it and see if it is cured. remember there is more than one set as well.
Race Director
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 14,060
Likes: 1,166
From: N. Alabama
Just put an MSD ProBillet in my '96 last week. I yanked a $600 dynaspark out that was installed last Dec. and has less than 3K miles on it. Car would miss, stall and finally died on the highway. Towed it to dealer but with no codes they were at a loss. It died twice in the service bay. I trailered it to my house and installed the MSD. Now the car runs strong, with no misses and has a couple of hundred miles on it with no issues. I will update this forum on Dynaspark's response to my problem next week. I would have to say at this point I do not hold Dynaspark in high regard.
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 109
Likes: 1
From: Biddeford ME
Looks like a bad new optispark. The jury's out on that but mechanic will have to eat shop time. Got spark and got fuel. The only thing we did was change the optispark. Of course, could it be the itermitten dying we started with. The MSD looked good internally. More latter.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 3,482
Likes: 196
From: folsom california
an easily overlooked...and delicate...item prone to corrossion (at least mine was) is the low voltage wiring harness that plugs into the opti; the opti design makes the terminals on the end of this harness darn near impossible to clean except for shooting with an aeresol electrical cleaner. But since the the foot long, four wire harness sells for as low as $25 ( I paid $37 for mine) brand new why even try ? This is one area where "repair by replacement" makes sense (p.s. don't go to the dealer...it had to be a misprint, but I was quoted $250 
)
)
Race Director
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 14,060
Likes: 1,166
From: N. Alabama
an easily overlooked...and delicate...item prone to corrossion (at least mine was) is the low voltage wiring harness that plugs into the opti; the opti design makes the terminals on the end of this harness darn near impossible to clean except for shooting with an aeresol electrical cleaner. But since the the foot long, four wire harness sells for as low as $25 ( I paid $37 for mine) brand new why even try ? This is one area where "repair by replacement" makes sense (p.s. don't go to the dealer...it had to be a misprint, but I was quoted $250 )
)
Burning Brakes
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 828
Likes: 103
From: Olney MD
Chandler Optisparks
Have used the delco,msd ,and dynaspark in my race car(procharged camaro) and had alot of failures,either misfiring or rotor would explode.i dont think delteq exists anylonger.was using the chandler lifetime units fo 134.00$ with good sucses,but i heard they have doubled the price,so i guess whatevery you try,just remove the cap and loctite the rotor screws and hope for the best.
mike
mike
I think most people who have a DOA unit are not getting the opti properly lined up on the shaft, and forcing it out of alignment. The alignment is subtle, and misalignment is fatal.
Anyway, I put my Chandler on last week and my 93 vert is running better than when I got it 18 months ago!!
BTW, as it was dying, the opti threw no codes. There were lots of carbon tracks in the distributor cap however, upon autopsy.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 5,193
Likes: 16
If you change the opti I would pull change the coil and control module and clean up that heat sink which is sure to be packed with grime...another $150.00 can't hurt and turned out to be the main prob with my car...
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 5,620
Likes: 206
From: Orlando FL
I can't completely disagree with mfi but have a suggestion.
Change one item at a time, opti, ICM, coil. That way if you have a no start problem, you will know what you did last rather than having the back track to find the cause.
It may take longer doing it this way but so what, there's no race and the customer is not picking the car up at the end of the day. It's just being methodical when changing a lot of parts or doing several things at one time avoiding a new set of problems or circumstances.
Change one item at a time, opti, ICM, coil. That way if you have a no start problem, you will know what you did last rather than having the back track to find the cause.
It may take longer doing it this way but so what, there's no race and the customer is not picking the car up at the end of the day. It's just being methodical when changing a lot of parts or doing several things at one time avoiding a new set of problems or circumstances.
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Yep, that's a good idea.
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 109
Likes: 1
From: Biddeford ME
an easily overlooked...and delicate...item prone to corrossion (at least mine was) is the low voltage wiring harness that plugs into the opti; the opti design makes the terminals on the end of this harness darn near impossible to clean except for shooting with an aeresol electrical cleaner. But since the the foot long, four wire harness sells for as low as $25 ( I paid $37 for mine) brand new why even try ? This is one area where "repair by replacement" makes sense (p.s. don't go to the dealer...it had to be a misprint, but I was quoted $250 )
)
Le Mans Master
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 5,214
Likes: 65
From: Queensland, AUSTRALIA
Did you try testing it for continuity? What about bending the contacts back out so they make firm contact? Cleaning them?
This is a simple piece, its 4 bits of stranded copper core wire and 2 simple plugs, it will not take any effort or even any special skills to test this item.
This is a simple piece, its 4 bits of stranded copper core wire and 2 simple plugs, it will not take any effort or even any special skills to test this item.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 5,193
Likes: 16
Reason I say change the coil and module is its a 20 minute job...if I had done it first I would have been on the road again that day..instead of 3 weekends changing ..everything else..but I'm glad I changed everything ..the car runs better than EVER!..but you say you have spark..I did not..but if your coil and module have a lot of miles on them..its just a matter of time before they start to go anyway..let us know how it going..
Burning Brakes
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 828
Likes: 103
From: Olney MD
I would have jumped off a bridge if i did the Opti first, and it hadn;t been the real culprit. This way I may have "wasted" some money by replacing things that were still functional (but perhaps next in line, anyway) but at least when I got to taking out the water pump, the harmonica balancer and the Opti, I had a high degree of certainty that it would fix the problem! And it did!
Melting Slicks
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 2,072
Likes: 1
From: Oklahoma City OK
St. Jude '10
It's not hard at all to remove the wires from the plugs on the harness. I had to use my original harness but with the new style plug on mine when I switched from early opti to the vented. If anyone is interested I can take pics and show how. It's very easy, no cutting.
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 109
Likes: 1
From: Biddeford ME
Did you try testing it for continuity? What about bending the contacts back out so they make firm contact? Cleaning them?
This is a simple piece, its 4 bits of stranded copper core wire and 2 simple plugs, it will not take any effort or even any special skills to test this item.
This is a simple piece, its 4 bits of stranded copper core wire and 2 simple plugs, it will not take any effort or even any special skills to test this item.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 5,193
Likes: 16
Mechanic seems to thing the timing is off in the new opti. We have fuel pressure and spark indicating signaling from the opti thru the harness. He has ordered another Optispark (AC/Delco) but I think we should try the new wiring harness before we give up on the new optispark.
