Morris Minor Owners Club

Three weeks ago, the memsahib and I set off in Myrtle the Minor to attend and be part of a local village festival which incorporates, inter alia, old/classic/interesting vehicles. We had travelled but half a mile when, quite uncharacteristically, Myrtle coughed, spluttered, issued a noxious grey cloud out of her exhaust pipe and began running very rough before cutting out completely. Managed to freewheel (the road was slightly downhill) to a safe stopping place where I tried a restart, to no avail, before having a look under the bonnet for anything obviously amiss, of which sign there was none. Had a look at the points, which were clean and showing a reasonable-looking gap (later confirmed to be 15 thou), tried the starter again but all I could get was a bit of firing followed by rough, two/three cylinder running for a few seconds. At this point the memsahib (keeper of the modern telephone) called the breakdown people.

An hour later, Adrian, a very pleasant breakdown person arrived. Carried out all the usual checks, including spark from king lead to earth (looked healthy enough), petrol present in tank etc then pulled off the clean (brand new in fact) air filter to look at/into the carb. Thought he detected a little stickiness in the piston movement so gave it a spray of carb cleaner. Next he observed that the petrol level in the transparent filter seemed rather low and wondered if the petrol pump was failing. Pulled off the pipe to the carb and held a rubber glove over the end of it while I turned the ignition on; petrol confirmed to be flowing. After quite a lot more such tinkering the engine started and ran normally so we drove back home with Adrian following to ensure we got there safely, which we did. However, as soon as I reversed on to my drive the rough-running re-commenced and the engine cut out. Despite Adrian's further efforts over the next half hour, no resolution could be achieved and, reluctantly, he left to attend to others, saying that he still thought it might be the fuel pump or, possibly a partially blocked jet.

Over the next couple of weeks I removed the pump, which appeared to be working, albeit rather more feebly than I would have anticipated, so I cleaned up the points, resulting in a bit more zippiness in its action and refitted it, with absolutely no difference to the non-starting problem. Then I took the carb off, partially stripped it (it all looked OK to me) re-assembled and re-fitted it, topped up the dashpot to be on the safe side and tried again. Still no start, just desultory firing followed by lumpy running for a few seconds.

By now I was out of ideas. Decided the only way forward was to call in the cavalry so I phoned Chris Flack, a very trustworthy and honest young local mobile mechanic, wondering if he was fully au fait with the vagaries of old-fashioned motors like the Moggie as, obviously, he spends much of his working day interpreting computer-based diagnostic information for modern vehicle servicing and repair. I needn't have worried. 'Sounds like a faulty condenser' was his reaction when I told him about my tribulations. 'Try replacing it and, if it doesn't work, ring me back and I'll arrange to come along and have a look at it for you.' Well, being a cautious soul and, having learnt years ago about the wisdom of having a new set of points and condenser to hand, I'd already assembled a 'vital tools' kit for the car, including the aforesaid points and condenser. The new condenser resolved the problem immediately and entirely. So, the old adage, '90% of all carburettor problems are electrical' has once again been demonstrated and the mere fact that the points and condenser are nearly new, apparently in perfect condition and therefore cannot be the source of the problem is possibly the greatest red herring in old car ownership.

I'm not remotely surprised. Apart from the fuel pump occasionally failing (which is very easy to diagnose) almost every problem I've had over many years running a Morris Minor has been condenser, rotor arm or coil.
Many new parts are very poor quality nowadays so don't assume that because something is fairly new, it must be alright. In fact, I would suggest the opposite! Well done in sorting it out. They are a simple car and are generally easy to get going again. Don't bother buying cheap ignition parts.

I agree with 'Many Minors' on the quality of some parts, and condensors in particular have had a bit of a bad reputation in the past for early failure. The best ones I have found are from Distributor Doctor. His points are great too! His parts are more expensive than the crappy ones but well worth it in terms of reliability.

'Don't bother buying cheap ignition parts.'

Am I safe in assuming that the stuff sold by the better-known Minor specialists is of good or reasonably good quality (one of which is where I bought the points and condenser that I was carrying as spares)?

Not necessarily good. They may be in Lucas boxes but they're probably made several time zones to the east with dubious quality control.

I believe the same goes for Borg and Beck ,purchase the company name and fill the boxes with second rate tosh...

John

ESM sell the DD yellow wire condenser (code DST106R) and the red rotor arm (code DST104AR).
If a good quality condenser is fitted the points don't get burnt away and all that is required is to check the points gap as part of the service intervals.

I could have been more clear. I run my car(s) on ignition parts which are either new/old stock original items or purchased from "The Distributor Doctor". I would avoid any of the modern stuff in green Lucas boxes. As somebody else has already pointed out, Borg & Beck which was a once trusted name, seems now to be substandard parts in good boxes......

What is the best clutch to go for these days if Borg & Beck are no good ?

Phil

Mmm, wonder how long the 'Lucas' condenser that I've just fitted will last then. Think I'd perhaps better get the Distributor Doctor version as my new spare.

When starting my new engine in my car, i fitted new points and condenser. Faffed around for ages trying to get it to fire. Tested all the things.
Then came to the points and condenser. The originals were tired, the points didn't have enough left on the heel to even open, so binned them. The old condenser...yep, fired up straight away!
It seems baffling that the suppliershaven't cottoned on to this and perhaps chased up Distributor Doctor or someone else to make a big batch to sell to us.
I did contact DD a few days ago for some peices for the components, i'm a bit short of funds due to the work i have had to do thus far, but i woll certainly buy some of his parts when i can.

I can recommend the DD. I have used his red rotor arms and other bits in several classics. Once I have Maurice's (previous owner's name for my latest aquisition) I shall be kitting out the distributor with his gear.

Myrtles Man wrote: ↑Sat Sep 29, 2018 9:23 am Mmm, wonder how long the 'Lucas' condenser that I've just fitted will last then. Think I'd perhaps better get the Distributor Doctor version as my new spare.

I think that would be a very good idea. His condensors and other stuff are top quality and ultra-reliable. I fitted a DD condensor about five years ago, together with a set of his points and have not had a single issue with the ignition system since.

In the good doctor's own words: "The quality of the commonly available condensers is very poor, in terms of both the physical fit & the performance /longevity. We have recently dismantled & examined 4 examples of the orange wired versions, from 4 different factories all around the globe. All of which are readily available & prevalent in the UK. The results confirmed our suspicions & why we are having so many phone calls from owners who've fallen victim to them. Original specification Lucas condensers & ours have 3 metres of winding inside, the orange ones have between 1 metre & 1.5 metres. The internal bonding & construction also left a lot to be desired."

Sounds like 'game, set and match' then.

Indeed, what are we all going to do when Martin retires?!

I suppose we will have to get a plentiful supply of stuff in stock to keep us going . Do condensors deteriorate in storage?
R.M.

Well, probably like many others here I miss that statement, you know the one, that 4 letter word............"its never the ?"

Ah yes, but in this case it wasn't the coil but the condensor! However, a recent post by 'geobernie' concludes that his unfortunate breakdown was due to "an intermittent Coil winding" Gasp - it was the coil!

Well, I hope thats that, but I recently had what I thought at first was, oh yes, gasps again, the coil.
I fitted a spare coil and all was good, for a while, then back came the problem and it turned out to be an intermittent cable break in the LT lead at the distributor cap.
Discernible only on removal and testing by wobbling on a continuity meter.
The new one is shown.
Anyway I hope the mans problem is sorted, but if the gremlins come back I think this is worth a visit.

At the risk of starting a whole new discussion, I have to say that I fitted electronic ignition almost four years ago and haven't had a single problem I bought one of the powerspark 45d complete distributors. I made the decision after getting several dodgy condensers in a row, causing exactly the same symptoms as described here.