TAG starter wiring help on PRD Fireball

Maintenance, Repair, Equipment & Tools
1

Hi new here, but not to karting. Hoping to learn here and appreciate any help.

I have a new-to-me PRD Fireball on an Emmick which was missing the wiring and battery, but runs fine with an external starter. So I picked up a 12v 9ah, relay, and 10 gauge wiring and tried to make my own harness. When I press the start button, the engine cranks, but the coil doesn’t seem to send a signal for the spark plug to fire. With everything still hooked up, hooking up the external starter and the kart fires fine. Is there something that the engine starter doesn’t turn that the external starter does? I believe I have the old style PRD Fireball based on the chain cover, the looks of the coil and start button, so I tried following the diagram on prd’s website. I skipped the kill switch since it looks like it just grounds the coil to prevent it from firing. Any help is appreciated!

My wiring:
starter

PRD Website:

prdwire
prdwire.PNG629×821 122 KB

2

First all, @my3awds, welcome to KartPulse!

Second of all, reach out to Huggler Racing Engines and contact Doug Huggler.

Doug(at)prdfireball.com or doug(at)hugglerracing.com and he’ll be able to help you.

Website: Prdfireball.com if you need parts.
Doug is the US distributor for PRD and has a ton of knowledge on these engines.

1 Like
3

Apparently poor/impossible on board starting was a ‘feature’ of earlier (pre 2012) fireball engines using the Oppama ignition and a replacement system called Easy start was fitted.
Basically the original on board system would not turn the engine fast enough to give a decent spark.
Suggested mods included using 18 volts on the starter or using an external starter.
Google PRD fireball manual/ starting and electrical. Acknowledgement to Wikipedia.

2 Likes
4

Too much voltage drop across the cables and relay can drop it below what’s required to fire the ignition.

I solved my PRD starting problems with a 4S LiPo battery - only problem is that it’s not self-charging.

You’ll probably run into ignition issues sooner or later; it’s a very low-energy coil.

2 Likes
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Thanks for all the help! Further research on all your suggestions confirms it. I’ll be ordering a 4S LiPo as well, but I’m leaning towards one of the smaller 14.8v 2200mah ones. I really like the size and I already have an external starter if I ever forget to charge it. https://amzn.to/2JLlrTN