Light Speed LSE III ignition only 1/2 firing?

[2High2Fast]

Started up and taxied for runup. I have a mag and a LSE Plasma III.
Noticed the LSE ignition’s tach was reading 1/2 the value reported by the regular tach (which was obviously reading a reasonable and likely accurate value).

Switched to the electronic ignition exclusively, and it barely ran and rough as hell. Obviously, flight was cancelled.

is there an obvious failure mode that would cause this? I’ll try the troubleshooting on LSE’s site when I get a chance, but just wondering if this is a known occurrence and why.

 

Thanks

 

[Kent Ashton]

I have had a coil go bad that takes out two cylinders.   Also had corrosion in one of the coil towers that was fixed by a thorough cleaning.  The LSE Box can go bad if there is a broken chip connection in the box.  You would probably send the box to Lightspeed for a check if you suspected that.   I would pull the plugs, ground them on the engine and check for a spark as you pull the engine through TDC.   Carefull with that mag—sometimes they get ungrounded and also fire.   Crank Triggers are pretty reliable but the mag-hole trigger can have problems.

[Marc Zeitlin]

1 hour ago, Kent Ashton said:

I have had a coil go bad that takes out two cylinders...

Anytime that two cylinders stop working with the LSE ignition, it's almost certainly a failed coil, as Kent says, since the system uses a waste spark configuration that fires two cylinders at the same time from each coil. First, use your EMS to monitor the EGTs when you do the runup on the EI alone and verify that two cylinders (1 & 2 or 3 & 4) are failing to run. If it's only ONE cylinder, then it's not a coil - it's probably a plug or wire. If it IS two cylinders, then swap the coils, and determine if the failed two cylinders follows the coil.

If the failure follows the coil, replace the coil. If it doesn't but it is two cylinders failing, then the box is suspect (although there's a small possibility that two plugs and/or two wires have failed).

 

[2High2Fast]

Ok, thanks guys. I’ll try and isolate a bad coil and report back.

[2High2Fast]

Are we having fun, yet?

Started engine to investigate coil issue, and canopy slammed down, hitting the button on my ball cap. Normally, it doesn’t touch me even with a headset added, but I must have been sitting on the back cushion a little as it likes to slide down.

I don’t even know where to start with replacing this non-standard canopy bubble.

 

[Marc Zeitlin]

39 minutes ago, 2High2Fast said:

I don’t even know where to start with replacing this non-standard canopy bubble.

Uggghhh. Sucks, Zach. Big job.

Temporarily, just so you can keep flying, try to pop the broken bit down so that it's flush with the rest of the canopy. Then use plexiglas cement (very thin liquid) and dab it into the cracks, and stop drill the end of the cracks. Then cover any small open spots, if any, with some tape on the inside of the canopy. Luckily, you rarely try to look straight up, so these cracks shouldn't prevent you from being able to fly the plane safely.

For a permanent fix, you'll have to build jigs, cut out the current plexi, and reinstall a new canopy cut to fit, re-layup both the inside and exterior layups, and re-finish. Like I said, big job.

Contact:

https://www.airplaneplastics.com/contact

for info on obtaining a new canopy. They still make Long-EZ canopies, I believe, and MAYBE they'd be willing to sell you only the forward 1/2, since that's all you need given your split canopy.

Good luck.

[2High2Fast]

21 hours ago, Marc Zeitlin said:

Uggghhh. Sucks, Zach. Big job.

Temporarily, just so you can keep flying, try to pop the broken bit down so that it's flush with the rest of the canopy. Then use plexiglas cement (very thin liquid) and dab it into the cracks, and stop drill the end of the cracks. Then cover any small open spots, if any, with some tape on the inside of the canopy. Luckily, you rarely try to look straight up, so these cracks shouldn't prevent you from being able to fly the plane safely.

For a permanent fix, you'll have to build jigs, cut out the current plexi, and reinstall a new canopy cut to fit, re-layup both the inside and exterior layups, and re-finish. Like I said, big job.

Contact:

https://www.airplaneplastics.com/contact

for info on obtaining a new canopy. They still make Long-EZ canopies, I believe, and MAYBE they'd be willing to sell you only the forward 1/2, since that's all you need given your split canopy.

Good luck.

Yeah, not a good scenario for a non-builder with limited time! And the Cozy is acting up, too. Fuel pressure reading negative numbers at high power settings, and normal at low power settings. Engine stumbled when I experimentally switched off boost pump. I haven’t had time to look into that at all, yet.