Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing +8 refuses to start

I wonder if You can swap a Gems ECU. Not sure about Morgan but in a Rover the ECU has security that will not allow another ECU. I have a GEMS EFI that I wanted to install in My +8 Bitsa. But I will need to use an aftermarket ECU. At the moment I was going to use "MegaSquirt". But after Collins message about "cold start" I wonder if MS has the circuitry to run a GEMS.

Better check, I am a light weight when it comes to EFI.

Button
Seattle

Just checked on the Internet the swapping situation for GEMS unit and it appears not easily, unless with the alarm unit and key fob.

quote from http://www.landroversonly.com/forums/f9/ecu-swap-question-36285/

"You can swap the ECU and alarm unit out for a set from another truck along with key fob from the donor truck. If they came out as a set they will work without doing anything."

"You can also purchase an ECU and have it sync'd to your existing alarm and fob."

Found this on Ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Land-Rover-ecu...725.m3641.l6368

Thanks all!

Hi, not sure if your car has a fuel isolator switch operated by oil pressure. If it has failed or has dirty contacts it can be bypassed easily as per http://www.gomog.com/allmorgan/Plus8isolatorswitch.html
I have had the 3 wire connector come off whilst driving! Frustrating but an easy and cheap fix
Regards

I know dermot all about electrics. My 1983 +8 wouldn't start, fuel pump ticked, just a click on activating the starter. the problem was a poor earth from the battery so it would not handle a large starting current, but the gauges and lights worked fine.

Again, thanks all for the suggestions. This car also has the Tornado upgrade chip in it, so I spoke to the folks at RPI/Tornado Systems and they have been extremely helpful. Failures are incredibly rare, so I just won the lottery, it seems! Turns out you can get all variety of new and remanufactured GEMS units from them, FYI, in addition to the Tornado chip. So, the whole unit is off to England to get evaluated and upgraded, even.
Fred

Well, the saga came to a successful end yesterday. The ECM finally returned from Tornado Systems in the UK and I plugged it back in and we are on the road again! Car runs even better now... Turns out, per Mark Adams at Tornado, that the upgrade chip failed (1st one ever), so Mark replace the defective chip, upgraded the software and sent it back to me. I also got a spare, unlocked GEMS ECM unit from him just in case something else electronic in the ECM might go wrong. Unlikely, yes, but the units are so ridiculously inexpensive that it is cheap insurance. By the way, Mark is wonderful to deal with - clearly a bit overworked - but an honest and truly nice person, so anyone thinking about some of his stuff for your Morgan, I can definitely recommend him and Tornado!

Glad to hear that