Morris Minor Owners Club

New leads,points,cap,condenser, coil as well,less than six months/2000 miles ago. Getting a slight misfire whilst driving to work this week. Driving to work today and the beast totally gave up as I approached a set of lights. Would not start for the love of money. Changed the condenser at the road side,good gap on the points,no joy. AA came out,Coil burnt out ! Coil changed, I walked home while waiting for the AA and got the old one. Fired up,but still getting a cough under load,which,i'm sure will lead to a misfire again. Why did my coil burn out ? I'll check the valve clearances at the weekend. Frustrated.

I'm sure we all know the feeling! These cars can require deep breaths sometimes.

I've read of new coils burning out when mounted horizontally on here before, something to do with the windings not being totally immersed in the oil inside.

Best of luck getting it running again.

Monty-4 wrote:I'm sure we all know the feeling! These cars can require deep breaths sometimes.

I've read of new coils burning out when mounted horizontally on here before, something to do with the windings not being totally immersed in the oil inside.

Best of luck getting it running again.

Thank you Monty. The long road of elimination I fear,it's becoming a long one though.

If you have a resistor coil, they're designed to operate at around 9v so they won't last long with 12v hooked up.
Most cars from the '70s & '80s used these to beef up the spark when starting the engine.

Scott wrote:If you have a resistor coil, they're designed to operate at around 9v so they won't last long with 12v hooked up.
Most cars from the '70s & '80s used these to beef up the spark when starting the engine.

Thanks Scott. It's been a different beast with the new coil !

Many of the new coils are made in huts in far away places - and yes - every chance you had a low ohms coil there. The OLD coils NEVER fail - and will ring up at 3.2 ohms which is correct for a non-ballast ignition system - ie what you have in your Minor. The overload of the low ohms coil will have ruined the points and condenser. I say this over and over again -and still folks buy nasty cheap coils with the wrong impedance. Coils sold now by Distributor Doctor are said to be good - otherwise only use genuine OLD coils, and carry a known good/working coil in the car - so you can quickly prove to yourself that your coil has NOT failed! A good spare distributor (again KNOWN to be working) is well worth carrying too.

bmcecosse wrote:Many of the new coils are made in huts in far away places - and yes - every chance you had a low ohms coil there. The OLD coils NEVER fail - and will ring up at 3.2 ohms which is correct for a non-ballast ignition system - ie what you have in your Minor. The overload of the low ohms coil will have ruined the points and condenser. I say this over and over again -and still folks buy nasty cheap coils with the wrong impedance. Coils sold now by Distributor Doctor are said to be good - otherwise only use genuine OLD coils, and carry a known good/working coil in the car - so you can quickly prove to yourself that your coil has NOT failed! A good spare distributor (again KNOWN to be working) is well worth carrying too.

Thanks Roy. I could do with a lesson on electrics. I felt like an idoit when I found out it was the coil at fault. Thought nothing of it really,bought the coil from a reputable dealer down south. Just asked for a Lucas coil. I learnt a lot about coils yesterday.

lucas by name but nothing else