Morris Minor Owners Club

Well, I've taken the plunge and made the conversion to my 1951 Series MM Short Bonnet 918 side-valve car.
The conversion is totally reversable, if desired. Fitting instructions are supplied with the kit.
The sequence of events -(1) dizzy before attack - mark up the current timing setting (I used a red fine tip marker pen). Fire up the engine and let it warm up for a few minutes. Switch off ignition and disconnect the battery.[frame][/frame](2) Cap off and Dizzy locking pin nut loosened.[frame][/frame](3) Disconnect CB lead to contact breaker[frame][/frame](4) Remove Rotor, and retain[frame][/frame](5) Remove base plate as one unit (points and condenser - only 2 screws involved)[frame][/frame](6) Fit PowerSpark +ve Earth electronic unit (from Simon BBC - http://www.simonbbc.com/), comes with replacement base plate - reuse the screws removed at step (5)[frame][/frame](7) slip the magnetic collar onto the rotor shaft - press well down into place[frame][/frame](8) Remove ignition switch feed from the SW terminal on the Coil and connect the White wire, from the electronic unit to it.[frame][/frame](9) Pop the Rotor head back on and connect the lead from the CB terminal to the Black wire of the electronic unit.[frame][/frame](10) Replace the dizzy cap[frame][/frame](11) Connect up a new Earth (+ve) lead to a good earthing point - this was difficult to find as everything under the bonnet had been painted over with black paint. The bolts holding the Coil to the bulkhead, unfortunately, are nut-and-bolt items and need 2 people to undo/do up - so couldn't use that location! I went for a screw holding the trim plate for the wiring loom, coming through the bulkhead for the earth connection (had to use a "dremel" with a point stone to clean down to bare metal)[frame][/frame](12) Reconnect the battery and fire up the engine - started after a couple of turns. Although it was running, I needed to retard the timing by about 5-10 degrees.
(13) Tighten the dizzy locking nut - this now became a problem as the nut was a bit big for the thread diameter. Even placing a spring washer onto it didn't allow me to lock down the Dizzy. It looks like I have somehting missing. Referring to the BMC manuals, there are 2 types of fitting - mine doesn't fmatch either of them.
(14) Using insulation tape, tape up the nut-and-bolt wire joining connections[frame][/frame]I just now need some help with the dizzy retaining bolt and dizzy lock down - can anyone help here?

are you missing the bolt?
its a piece of round steel, with an arc cut out of it (to match the distributor hole in the head)
when you tighten it, it rotates and locks the shaft in place.
Or do you want the other type.

have been looking at those kits, let us know how it gets on.
Also is your distributor 180 degrees out, tho i guess it doesnt matter if the leads are right

Hello Tortron, if you look at the 1st picture in my post, you can see the bolt and tightening nut below the dizzy.
The dizzy does have a clearer timing mark on the other side, but I didn't turn it or change the leads, as it makes the contact breaker connection even further away from the coil (i.e. it would point that part of the dizzy towards the carb on the right of the engine, and the coil is on the left bulkhead - looking in from the front grille). I have another, earlier post, regarding the body markings and dizzy orientation. http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=54952 I was doing the kit fitting inside my temporary Polytunnel storage facility as it was tipping down with rain, so haven't made a full road test yet.
George.

I replaced the cotter bolt with a modified cotter with a larger thread and 9/16 a/f nut. You can just fit a 9/16 ring spanner to slacken the cotter enough to turn the dizzy then tighten it without fear of snapping the bolt[frame][/frame]. Original unmodified cotter

Mike, looks like the threads on my cotter bolt are very shallow. The nut actually slides on quite a way before getting any "bite", although the threads don't look stripped. A 5/16 Whitworth socket fitted the nut exactly - maybe it is the wrong nut?
I also completed a shortish road test - local roads and part of the A30, down to the Ely roundabout. Got up to just under 70 mph on the way back (wobbly speedo needle) and it did seem to behave better than the run on the same roads last Sunday with points electrics.
George.

your bolt is also around the opposite way
perhaps flipping it around would help (i think that side of the casting is thinner)

70mph sounds pretty good for a sidevalve!
I would imagine the electronic ign really comes into play on start up and at higher rpm. Must beat the old Lucas T.A.C kit.

How did you find the quality of the kit? One of the reasons i was putting it off is i had heard it wasnt that great.

tortron wrote:...
How did you find the quality of the kit? One of the reasons i was putting it off is i had heard it wasnt that great.

There are two suppliers of the DKY4 electronic conversion kit. Both of them offer -ve Earth and +ve Earth kits.
The -ve Earth kits are a lot cheaper - don't ask me why. Out of the 2 +ve Earth kits I looked at, on-line, I opted for the cheaper one (thats because I'm a not only a Morris Minor Owner, but also a muzzle-loading shooter - and we are cheapskates!).
The other supplier is Accu-spark - I have used their -ve Earth 25D conversion in my Traveller (1098 engine and 25D dizzy, instead of the 803 engine and DM2 dizzy) and I have been very happy with it.
The only negative thing I can say about the Powerspark kit, from Simonbbc, is that the leads could have been made a bit longer, given the greater distance from Dizzy to bulkhead mounted coil location (I don't think that the Accu-spark one is any different). But, don't forget, it wasn't just the Moggy that used a DKY type dizzy and the under-bonnet layouts would have been different.
George.

I took out the cotter pin/bolt[frame][/frame]and it looks to be home-made.
I checked out the nut and it looked to be identical to a 3/8" BSF nut (and I've got a full box of these). The 5/16" whitworth socket fits the hex perfectly. Tried a new nut and it wouldn't go more than 2 turns. So, hunting around all the things I've slavaged over the years, I found a 3/8" BSF die (it is now in the Racco draw with the 3/8" BSF taps that I knew I had.
Cotter put in vice, and die fitted to tool - very slowly, a turn as a time (and checking as I went), I recut the bolt threads.
Nut goes on perfectly and does up with no thread play[frame][/frame]Bolt replaced in dizzy mount and the dizzy[frame][/frame]put back in and the nut done up "finger tight" and it holds the dizzy correctly now.