Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi everyone

I recently purchased a complete Lucas service kit for my 1969 Minor which had leads, distributor cap, rotor arm, condenser, coil etc. Everything I needed to service the car with apart from the oil.

Since I fitted everything, I have had nothing but problems with the car breaking down after it has been driven for 5-10 minutes. It’s fine from cold but then it starts to backfire and loses power. At the first sign of this, I press the clutch pedal and it stalls. It refuses to start until it’s cooled down sufficiently and then it starts and the cycle starts again.

I think I have managed to trace the problem down to the coil because since I refitted the old one (which I keep in the boot with all the other parts removed for servicing) I don’t seem to have the problem any more.

So down to my question which is, I want to keep the car as original as possible and running on everything it did when it was new i.e., I’m not interested in electronic ignition but wish to retain points, condensers etc. so would you good people buy Lucas branded parts or do you have other brands which are better in your opinion? My new coil (found to be defective) wasn’t a gold (sports) one it was silver but I falsely thought that Lucas would be the way to go.

Any thoughts please?

Maybe Lucas isn’t Lucas as such anymore, I don’t know if you were having troubles before you fitted those service items, if you were not, remember——- if it’s not broke, don’t fix it !

Modern replacement parts can be very poor. Lucas parts are not the only ones.

I would recommend swapping back the rotor arm as modern ones can be a problem. I would not touch another new lucas coil having had 3 fail on me.

There are better suppliers out there.

Originally, these cars were fitted with British made Lucas electrical parts and the quality was pretty good. Now however, Lucas is just a name. It has been bought by a large company who seem to import cheap poor quality parts to sell on to the unsuspecting. I wouldn't touch any new Lucas reproduction stuff. The name means nothing. Better to contact "The Distributor Doctor" and use his products if you want reliability. Well maintained and using good quality parts, the original ignition system should be completely reliable and easily maintained

ManyMinors hit the nail on the head. What is now Lucas is a Slovakian registered company who imports from Guangxi, China.

Only the plugs and points were listed by Morris as items for periodic replacement. For the other items, as someone has already said, if they ain’t broke don’t mess with ‘em.

Agreed. I wouldn't call the leads, dizzy cap - and especially coil - normal service replacements. The old coils go on for years. New coils are often a different matter, as you have found out. In addition to getting a quality rotor arm as suggested by 'mowogg', I would get a quality condensor as well and get them from the good Doctor, as advised by 'ManyMinors'. These parts have often been sub-standard as well, as various tales on this site will testify.

Mick Lynch wrote: ↑Fri Oct 08, 2021 5:20 pm ManyMinors hit the nail on the head. What is now Lucas is a Slovakian registered company who imports from Guangxi, China.

Interesting that as I was expecting India, based on the fact that on eBay all the replacement "Lucas Style" indicator stalks for the Minor back when I last looked (proably a good number of months ago now) were all shipping from India.

As an aside I saw the other day ESM now have stock of the official Lucas ones again. If I had the money I'd have been tempted, my chrome wiper stalk had turned to rust and sanding it to at least a silver metal doesn't look as good

Modern Lucas stuff is rubbish, i recently bought a temperature sender for my 80's range rover, it fell to pieces before I even got it fitted.

The only place I would buy ignition components from now is the distributor Doctor, the parts I bought for my Elan were superb quality.

As previously mentioned, buy modern electric ignition. No more problems.

Only problems are people giving you negative comments because they simply dont like it. I dont know 1 single person who has not said it is fit and forget. I've had it fitted to all 3 cars for over 10 years now.

In so far as coils go I’ve got a Bosch one because the modern Lucas ones have such a bad rep. Charles Ware sell them but they can be had for much less on eBay etc, normally marketed for VW Beetles etc. It’s slightly fatter than the Lucas one and in my case I had to change the bracket to make it fit.

Lots of people seem to suggest the distributor doctor for quality ignition parts.

Hi all

Thank you so much for your honest replies.

No, I didn't have any problems with how the car ran before I swapped the items over but at least I had the sense to keep the old parts, which is how I managed to refit them after several break downs.

I have been tempted by electronic ignition and realise that the car will probably run better and there will be less maintenence but for me, I would like to have a completely standard car running like it did from the factory. I suppose it's just my preference and I am certainly not trying to disrespect anyone from this site who has electronic ignition fitted. Probably very sensible. My Morris hasn't changed at at in the 52 years it's been on the road - apart from a gold seal engine that was fitted in 1980 so I'd like to try and do the car justice and keep it original.

Thank you for the recommendation of getting ignition parts from the Distributor Doctor. I'll definitely try there in the future.

Thanks again everyone.

Marc.

ampwhu wrote: ↑Fri Oct 08, 2021 8:23 pm As previously mentioned, buy modern electric ignition. No more problems.

Only problems are people giving you negative comments because they simply dont like it. I dont know 1 single person who has not said it is fit and forget. I've had it fitted to all 3 cars for over 10 years now.

A few years back in the months immediately after getting my Minor, we broke down twice on the A1, completely dead ignition.
Both times the RAC responding engineer (different guys) blamed the 'electronic ignition'.
After the first tow home, it started fine and I could find nothing wrong.
After the 2nd time, on getting home it was still completely dead, allowing me to investigate. I found an open circuit Coil.
A few months later, I also found the fitted Accuspark Plugs had a problem, since they were each between 30-50 Ohms . Perhaps they have radio suppressors inbuilt, but why such a range of resistance? Their website makes no mention so I would expect near 0 Ohms.
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=69837&hilit=coil&start=20#p636467

So, no problem with Accuspark Electronic Ignition, but I'm not impressed with their Coil or Plugs quality.

I have a Lucas Gold Coil fitted now and carry 2 spare coils, 1 another Accuspark that I had already ordered after my first breakdown, plus another Lucas Gold.

Unfortunately I think the aftermarket electronic ignitions have gone the same way as the ignition components, I have a Lumenation (made in the UK) system that's been on one of my cars for at least 30 years without a single issue, one I bought 5 years ago (Can't remember the make) failed after a couple of years....

It seems like those Chinese parts are getting everywhere.

I have looked at the Distributor Doctor website and they seem to provide a good service and the parts seem to look okay too, at least, how they are described. I'll leave the coil alone and buy a new rota arm, condenser and points from them I think.

Thanks again.

Another thumbs up for the distributor doctor from me. I have had three accuspark failures and have now have reverted to standard ignition on both my LR and Minor. No problems since

mobylette wrote: ↑Sun Oct 10, 2021 4:11 pm Another thumbs up for the distributor doctor from me.

And me.

Does no-one ever read the Club Spares page in Minor Matters?
We have a good stock of genuine UK made ignition parts from the real Lucas company and other like Remax and Greyfriars. Some items like condensers are getting harder to find but we do have a stock of the identical Lucas UK made condenser fitted with extra cables to fit the later 45D distributor which can be easily removed to fit the 25D distributors.
It is several years since Lucas Uk went into liquidation and the brand name was sold to a foreign company with parts being made in India, China and elsewhere. A new company recently appeared trading under the name of Lucas Classics and making out that they are the same company that made Lucas products 50 years ago, but my request to them as to where parts are made or even who owns the company has not been answered.

You may have omitted replacing one small but very important part, the terminal bush and head. A tiny cable fitted to the points, part number DST107.An intermittent breakdown can occur when this cable breaks and makes again with age and engine vibration.
I learned from bitter experience.