Morris Minor Owners Club

hi, recently asked about starting problems,well have taken away electronic ignition and gone back to points, changed dizzy cap, roter arm, rats tail, new ht leads,points, condenser, have tried various coils, have good spark at points, have good spark at coil and lights up test bulb, but nothing coming from coil to dizzy, have tried taken the cable from dizzy and no spark from 6mm as suggested, have checked fiber washer in points, and i thought i had leads wrong ,have gone 1342 from cap starting from below right of cable conection to points. anymore suggestions, and have checked petrol coming through and thats ok... thanks

I'm confused, you have a spark at the points... but not from coil to dizzy? I thought you get no spark at all if the coil wasn't giving anything? Are your plugs sparking? Have you taken each one out and rested it on the cylinder head?

AS Dean says, check you have a spark at the plugs when turning over th engine. If there is no spark at the plugs suspect the rotor arm but also check you have gapped the points correctly and that the distributpr cap is in good condition.
If you get a spark at the plugs you can also confirm the firing order as you turn the engine.

Is the rotor arm the correct one for the dizzy ? Take the main HT lead going from the coil - and fix it to a spark plug lying on the head - then turn the engine or flick the points - does it spark ?

I went to start my Traveller this morning and it didn't want to know. As it had been standing outside I sprayed everything with WD 40. No luck. Coil and points sparking, nothing at the plugs, checked HT lead. Found that I had one of those suspect rotor arms so changed it and checked the carbon brush. Wired up a spare coil, still nothing. Last thing to change was the dizzy cap so I dug out an old cap with leads attached, fitted it and it fired up straight away. I just need to know what was wrong with the original cap which was fairly new.

Presumably it has 'tracked' internally - clean it out and inspect carefully for tiny hair-line marks. I would throw it away to avoid any chance of re-using it - but your curiosity may encourage you to refit it after cleaning - and see if it now works perfectly! Sure the fault is not perhaps in the so called 'king' HT lead - from coil to cap ?

Yes I thought of that, it is a side entry cap so the copper core leads were screwed into the cap and appeared to be in good order. I checked the push fit into the coil. Normally with a faulty cap you get a misfire not completely dead, so it does indicate a faulty king lead.

I cleaned the original distributor cap and leads, checked that everything was tight and replaced the cap. The engine fired up immediately. I never found anything wrong with it.