My dad was letting me use his Sun inductive timing gun to set the base timing on my car. From the moment I started using it, it behaved very erratic. It would start flashing then randomly quit working, then start up again depending what position you were holding the gun in. Just as I got the base timing set properly, it quit working and didn't come back on after that.

Took the gun apart and discovered one of the leads for the large capacitor had come de-soldered from the board, which explains why it would intermittently go on and off. Fixed the solder joint but the gun still did not work after that just as I expected. Further inspection of the internals shows what resembles a typical christmas tree style lightbulb that appears to be blown. Two questions:

A) Is this what could be keeping the gun from working
B) Where would I find a replacement for this part? Is this literally a christmas tree bulb or is this going to require a specific part?


My dad's hotrodding days are over and he said I could keep the gun if I could fix it. I know it would only cost $30 - $40 for a new gun but this has been in the family since before I was born so I'd prefer to fix it if possible.

 

Bump

 

It's probably brighter than a regular christmas tree light bulb. I'd go grab a cheep light from harbor freight for $20 and pull the light out of that.

It appears to be a xenon flasher type light bulb, and I can't seem to find any online. So ... you'll have to rip one out of another gun, or get creative and try to modify it to use some sort of special LED.

 

those bulbs can also be found in el chepo strobe lights from a party store (the timing gun is just an advanced strobe light afterall)