Morris Minor Owners Club

right, primrose died this morning.

yesterday i whipped off the dizzy cap, cleaned the points and the rotor arm and gave the inside of the cap a wipe. i also adjusted the timing slightly with the thing on the side of the dizzy, just to make it run abit better. i adjusted the carb so it wasnt running as rich and as fast.
all of this was ok when the engine was running, (not the dizzy bits, thats just silly)

anyway, when it came to starting the thing to go fetch some new wheels the result was nothing. lots of engine turning over but no actual continued running.

i have changed the condenser (just in case)
tweaked the timing again
checked the wiring
swapped over the coil
taken the air filter off to dry out the carb (just in case i flooded it)

and still nothing.

so what could i of done so drastically wrong to kill primrose?

and more importantly how do i fix it?

Have a look at the plugs.
While you have them out plug the HT lead back in, rest the plug on the engine and turn it over to see if you have a spark.
If you do get a spark, what colour is it and what colour are the plug tips?
If they are wet with petrol you need to dry them.

Why do you fiddle with it ???? Did you pull out the little carbon brush in the dizzy cap - when you were 'wiping' it ??

Si fractum non sit, noli id reficere Your Motto from now on.............

Fault diagnosis is about checking one item at a time in a logical sequence. Start at the coil and if that is ok go to the distributor, then to the plugs, checking all the connections on the way. Replace one component at a time and test it. If you just change coils, condensors, points, plugs you will not know where you are or what the fault is.

solved it, the points had given up the ghost.

they did open and close, so i put a bulb in parallel with them, but it just stayed on all the time, thinking that was odd i whipped off the points and replaced with newish ones.

Behold, the bulb went on and off when the points opened and closed, a spark was seen as was the sound.

dizzy cap back on and hay presto she is alive again.

as for the motto, Si fractum non sit, noli id reficere, it is very apt i must say, though this one is quite good as well
operor non restituo quispiam ut est non infractus

Only if you know what you are doing!