Morris Minor Owners Club

is there a rough way of setting the timing,please note i dont have a strobe light and the dizzy is a 45d with no vernier control,also the ignition is electronic so no points

Assuming the engine is running - just turn the dizzy slowly each way until you get the best idle. then road test the car and listen for any 'pinking' when pushing hard in top gear. If pinking - retard slightly. If no pinking - you could advance slightly until you DO get pinking - then back off again slightly. If the dizzy advance curve is not correct you may have to decide whether to go for perfect idling - or best running position. Unless the engine does lots of idling (!) _I would favour best 'running' to maximise performance and economy.
Best to check the vacuum advance is connected - and working!

Fitted an Aldon Ignitor to a 'running' engine, only to find that without changing the position, the distributor had significantly more static advance than with the points. It would barely turn over.

I retarded it about 20°, and it started OK - then immediately checked and set the idle timing to what the engine needed (in this case 15° BTDC).

You will need either the battery, or a charger connected and power to the coil to set the basic timing. Connect a low wattage lamp between the distributor side of the coil and earth, in parallel with the white/black lead, or possibly a black lead for electronic ignition?. Set the crankshaft at the right static or idle timing position. Assuming that the distributor is roughly in the right position, turn on the ignition, or connect the supply to the coil, and rotate the distributor 20/30° counter-clockwise (in the same direction as the rotor arm turns), the light should glow, if it wasn't already. Turn the distributor slowly clockwise, until the light goes out, STOP! Tighten the distributor clamp. This is the correct static timing setting, but you may need to make a correction for dynamic.

Wow -15 BTDC - I'm amazed it can start at all in cold weather. To me this indicates something wrong with the advance curve. It should never really be more than 5 BTDC static - and then the advance curve should pick it up at idle. Note that at idle - the vacuum advance comes into play and pulls the ignition timing forward pretty much as soon as the engine fires. This is the ideal situation - low static advance for easy starting - then best advance for 'clean' idling, with the curve keeping the advance just right as the engine accelerates. The vacuum system helps economy (and 'brightens' the engine) by pulling the timing forward when running light throttle.
The position of the points gap affects timing quite a bit - so not surprised at the setting being wrong when fitting an 'Ignitor' - but then it should pan out as normal once the static is set.

BMC,

Nothing wrong with the advance curve and starts very easily in any conditions! It has a Kent 276 and Aldon Yellow dizzy, and 15° at 1,000 rpm idle (vacuum disconnected) is quite normal for the engine spec.

Agree totally with your comments about needing a working vacuum advance. Went down into Oxford some while ago and the behaviour in traffic was jerky and uncomfortable. When I got home found that I had not reconnected the vacuum advance after replacing the rocker cover when adjusting the tappets. All perfectly normal once reconnected.

Ahhh - 15 degrees at 1000 rpm is not 15 degrees static! The mechanical advance may have kicked in - and the vacuum advance will certainly have kicked in! An engine at 15 static is almost impossible to start from cold - I know -I've tried it!