Morris Minor Owners Club

sorry i really don't understand fully how this stuff works so Im trying to do my best to follow your instructions.

A while back - you said it was a +ve earth car - and now you say it has an alternator? These are almost always -ve earth (only very early 11AC could be used +ve earth AFAIK) - so, is it -ve earth after all ?

Probably, I think I may have been confused. looking at the car now I think this one was converted to negative earth when it had an alternator fitted, my other Morris which is an earlier model by a few years has a positive earth and dynamo so I may have been muddled.

Sorry my bad, I'm very new to this sort of thing.

Right - so, the battery feed to the coil should be to the +ve terminal and should read 12 volts all the time when measured to earth. The other side of the coil should read 12 volts when the points are open - and 0 volts when the points are closed. Does it ??
Problem may be with the little 'low voltage wire' inside the dizzy - which runs from the connector where the external cable comes in to the dizzy - to the points assembly. Check if it is ok - not broken - and not 'bare' and shorting out ? Can you swap over the dizzy from the other engine - or is that 'too difficult' ??

Yep - as BMC says, two wires to check here, the little one that goes from where the black and white one enters the dizzy to the insulated part of the points, and the other one is a bare copper braided wire that earths the points base-plate to the distributoer body. This one is needed as the points base-plate can turn backwards and forwards, moved by the advance retard mechanism - as it's a moving part, it won't always earth properly by itself, so tehre is a copper braided wire as described, to ensure it aalways has a permanent good earth. If either of these two wires are faulty, there is a good chance that the points won't be switching the power to the coil, thus giving you no spark.

Bit fiddly to check both of these thoroughly, as it probably means taking the base plate out, but best it's done, then you're sure.

Cheers!

Ok

+ve - is the battery feed
-ve - is conctected to the coil

Points open
=========
+ve 12volts
-ve 12volts
inside dizzy on points spring 0 volts

Points closed
=========
+ve 12volts
-ve 12volts
inside dizzy on points spring 12 volts

BMC, Im not confident changing the dizzy with the old one as its different looking.

Luxobarge

Thanks for the advice its kept me trying all day, but im tired now and there is no light, So I will take another look in the morning, Im sorry to have been a pain about this but thanks, I will see what I can do.

Hey, no problem mate - you're very welcome! It's been fun, at this end at least! I'm supposed to be decorating the bedroom, but I'd MUCH rather be helping someone get their car going!

Don't worry at all about asking for advice - that's what the forum is here for, if we didn't want to help we wouldn't post answers! I'm absolutely sure that you haven't given offence to anyone either, don't worry about it, I'm sure BMC was just trying to check out whether you were confident enough to swap a dizzy - it's quite difficult to assess people's abilities via a forum, so I'm sure he was just trying to be helpful!

Yeah, I don't like continuing on into the dark either, also a fresh start in the morning can often do the trick!

BTW - swapping a distributor is quite easy.....

All the best - have a nice evening!

nsl - no offence! Sorry if it came over like that -I was just trying to sort out what was going on and what readings you should expect. Changing the dizzy would be my way of doing this - but I fully appreciate that not all are confident enough to do this (nor was I at first - some 45 years ago!) and so again i was just establishing what you felt confident enough to tackle. Don't worry - it's almost certainly something very simple and between us all we will get you going again I'm sure!

If you are still stuck call me on :- oh 1 6 nine 2 four oh 3 9 seven 8. I only live in North walsham so could pop round tommorow to look at your problem if you like.

I'm a fully qualified electronics engineer so car electrics are easy peesy to me

Also my names Nigel so we could cause some confusion together hee hee

BMC, sorry my bad, I was tired and I got a bit frustrated towards the end of yesterday, I shouldn't have taken offence by that, I interpreted your sentence the wrong way, I understand you are all trying to help, but there is something about how this all works Im missing.

Nigel Kindly offered to come over and have a look today and I have phoned him, and I hope that he may be able to point out what it is I'm not getting, and we should hopefully get to a solution. I will keep you guys posted as I'm sure some of you will want to know what actualy is causing my problem, and thank you.

Went to Nigels this Morning, found the points were not closing (electricaly rather than physicaly), whipped them out to find they were well corroded and dirty so fitted an old set from my toolbox and we were in business.

Its always difficult to explain without being there but I now think he knows how the ignition works and what to look for when it don't.

Also had nice cup of tea and bottle of wine for me trouble

well done

another problem solved

Brilliant - 3 cheers for Nigelr - that's what the Moggie scene is all about isn't it? Glad it was a quick fix, this one had the smell about it that it was going to be something simple in the end, I bet you're glad you didn't go ahead with swapping distibuters now! That would have fixed it of course mind you, but it's nice to know precisely what the problem was.

Nice one guys - keep up the good work!

Yes Thanks again to the forum for all the help, I now Know what I'm looking for when it comes to clean working points.

Its frustrating sometimes when Im looking at some text and trying to visualise whats supposed to be going on.

I took her out for a run and went into wilco's got a spare set of points and a set of feeler gauges, so I now have spare coil, condenser, leads, rotor arm, and points. Next job dig out a small tool box and set up a kit with the items needed to carry around in the boot - just in-case Weather was good so I went out to Wroxham and back and came back with that I've just driven my minor grin.

Well done ! The point of swapping dizzy was to try to isolate the problem to either dizzy - or something else! I thought at one point (!) new points had been fitted ? Very well done Nigelr - that's the spirit! Well worth getting a complete spare dizzy to carry in the car - along with your other ignition spares. Can usually get them for a very few pounds at autojumble - or ebay.