Date:         Wed, 20 Nov 1996 23:03:46 -0800
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         david kao <dtkao@worldnet.att.net>
Subject:      Re: CD Ignition

Sean Bartnik wrote:
> 
> Hey all,
> I was just reading Bob's sermon on capacitive discharge ignition > modules

Many years ago, I built one for my scooter Vespa-150. I wound the transformer
myself and built a ugly prototype, used a 6 volt battery to operate it. 

It worked! Well, for just about 1 minute before it blew up into smokes.
But that one minute was sure the most exciting one. The idle was like
more than twice the normal RPM. The engine was twice as loud as used
to be. But the sound was clean and powerful. Before I had a chance to
ride the Vespa down the street it blew up and died.

CDI system is sure very powerful. However I do feel that it is going to be 
less reliable due to high voltage (400 - 600 V dc). It demands very high quality
ignition wires.

I never rebuilt my CDI protype. I gave it up.

David Kao

83 westy
84 vanagon