timing light not flashing

[l1ttle_d3vil]

i got a timing light which works fine, except when I try it on my wagon. when the car is running fine the timing light will hardly flash, maybe once every 20 seconds. its basically the same on any four of the HT leads.

as above, the timing light works fine because if I chuck it on my other car it'll work sweet instantly.

is this possibly because of faulty HT leads or something similar?
both cars are running standard 4age 16v engines.

edit - also, if it matters its the type where you put the two terminals onto the battery to power the timing light. i've tried moving these terminals around to make sure they have a good connection and it doesn't make any difference.

cheers.

[slighty_sykotic]

Really well sheilded ht leads?

[l1ttle_d3vil]

they're nothing flash, just standard HT leads...
i might try swap the ht leads over from my sr and see if it'll work with those ones on the wagon...

[l1ttle_d3vil]

i've now tried it with an ht lead off the sr (which the timing light works fine on), once i chuck it on the wagon the timing light starts working intermittently (sp??). any way it could be to do with the battery or distributor or something??

never come across anything like this before...

[Grrrrrrr!]

Too much electrical noise coming into the timing light via the power connections might cause this. Is your car missing a few suppressor caps from the ignition circuit?

[l1ttle_d3vil]

ah probably the case then. no idea if its missing suppressor caps or not, its a conversion and someone else wired the engine in...? is a different / better timing light going to be any different?

[Grrrrrrr!]

Yep, possibly, or even just use a different battery to power the timing light. those small 12v SLA batteries from house alarms are handy. This is assuming that your timing light uses an inductive pickup that clips over a HT lead.

If it uses a direct electrical connection (metal on metal) coil this might be a bad idea... mmmm magic smoke