Morris Minor Owners Club

gday folks I have a problem on my bedford cf ignition switch in that if you try to start from cold its hard to start ,just winds and winds but as you go to release the key operated switch it will fire up and run ok.just seems to be working on the last part of operation of switch.gets easier once its been started any ideas as how to correct this? thanks in anticipation.

It's low volts - while cranking the volts to the coil are too low to fire the plugs - as you release there is a burst of volts which if lucky will 'catch' the plugs just before the engine stops turning! Probably needs a better battery and/or connections all cleaned up. Some cars now have 6 or 9 volt coils for normal running through a ballast resistor - but during starting are fed directly from the battery to ensure a good spark. You could try something like that - won't do any harm!

i use to run vauxhall vivas with the 2300 slant 4 engine this happend several times to me, in the end i got rid of the low volt starting put a normal 12v coil on and a live wire from the ignition switch [only live when ignition lights are on] and i never had another problem

It may be a worn out ignition switch, I've had this before, where the ignition circuit only makes in the ignition on position! Put a meter on the back of the switch and see what happens to the ignition terminal in the starter position.
If it is a system which feeds 12v to bypass a ballast resistor then it is also entirely possible that the link wire for that function has failed somewhere along its' length which would possibly display the same fault