Morris Minor Owners Club

After reading several tales of woe on the subject of trouble caused by defective wires in the distributor, I think we should all go outside now, even if it's cold and raining, and give the condition of these wires a thorough examination.

Please don't put posts up later allowing me to come in and write: "Told you so" .

I know the wire that I call the 'rats tail' in mine looks quite nasty and thin with dodgy insulation but as it's an earth wire I'm ignoring it .

My low tension wire had bare wires exposed

Well checked, webbnuts!

I am of the opinion that the distributor gets neglected because it's a bit daunting to attempt to interfere with it. Fiddly, one might say.
But wire insulation degrades with time - don't forget the dizzy sits on the block, and reaches very high temperatures. Then there's the strangely-insulated 'rat's tail', which is soldered into place in the factory but consists of many fine strands which are almost impossible to clean up for a re-solder without their breaking.
The condenser looks nice on the outside, but is it actually doing anything? And what about that plunger in the dizzy cap - how do you guage the condition of its spring?

Well, it's worth a bit of study, and some hands-on messing about. But a quick "visual" now and again can save you lots of grief.