captain chaos Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 Ok....car ran fine until son went away for 2 weeks. Came home...car sat in cold but under a cover. tried to start but no joy... so he first noticed that there was a very weak intermittant spark. So, new rotor arm and Dist cap. Still no joy. Then bought a new coil. Still no joy. I arrive home to help...checked we have very good 12.5v on one side of coil, and to eliminate earth issues i ran a lead all the way back to the battery from neg side. Still no joy,,,now no spark on any plugs. Across the coil there is an amp module which bolts to the side of the distributor. Not really knowing what it does, but as we've checked all else..bought a new one today. Still no spark. I also took a plug lead and ran the lead direct to a plug...so direct from coil to spark plug...still nothing??? Coil does get ever so slightly warm..but only just. Checked that we have correct terminals on coil... the earth strap is connected to the engine.....the car ran Ok 2 weeks ago... What are we missing???? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Jonathan Kay Posted April 5, 2013 Member Share Posted April 5, 2013 What's the voltage on cranking? Jonathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Domus Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 Many many moons ago I had similar problems with our classic mini. Changed all the ignition due to what I thought was a weak spark. Turned out the needle in the carb was loose, piston moved up, needle stayed put. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markiebabes Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 Are all leads to coil tight ? is battery fully charged ? Are points closed up ? is there any form of cut out switch from the coil ? Check fuses ? Just been through this on my '74 VW camper just fitted electronic ignition to bypass condenser and points worked a treat 😬 Hth electrics are so frustrating Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Chips Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 Try removing coil HT lead from distributor; turn engine by hand until points fully closed. Switch on ignition open and close points with screw driver whilst holding HT lead from coil 5+mm from block, and see what you get. Should be good fat spark? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger King Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 Condenser? Assuming you have contact breakers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captain chaos Posted April 5, 2013 Author Share Posted April 5, 2013 Hi all it has an electronic distributor so no points... Not tested voltage on cranking..what should it be? We've had carb out as I thought fuel just to be sure...but if it was fuel...why no spark? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Jonathan Kay Posted April 5, 2013 Member Share Posted April 5, 2013 More than 9.6V Jonathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tbird Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 Can you take battery out of boot, or use a spare battery and use some jump leads to connect positive directly to +ve side of solenoid and negative to a clean bolt head on Block somewhere, just to rule out long cable runs, then see if it starts sparking, given that you are testing spark by earthing ground electrode to block. Also if its Lumenition or indeed any electronic ignition be careful handling the plug leads, my Mini had a nasty habit of the spark tracking down the outside of the lead, gives you a hell of a belt, but does prove its a good spark 😬, Tim Edited by - tbird on 6 Apr 2013 02:27:20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captain chaos Posted April 6, 2013 Author Share Posted April 6, 2013 Hi When testing voltage when cranking am I testing across the coil or across the battery? Battery is only 4 months old... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captain chaos Posted April 6, 2013 Author Share Posted April 6, 2013 Also...no condensor... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Jonathan Kay Posted April 6, 2013 Member Share Posted April 6, 2013 I don't know enough about the wiring of your ignition to say. If you can get at the low voltage feed to the ignition start there. Otherwise anywhere convenient, and if you've got enough voltage somewhere start checking nearer and nearer to the plugs. Bad connections can show enough voltage but it can't be maintained when you need more current. It might help if you describe the electronic ignition as someone might know how to test that directly. Jonathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Locust Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 Is it the OE electronic distributor from the '80s? Metro Haynes manual has quite a few pages on electronic distributors but there are a multitude of types listed. See if you can find the model code on the body of the distributor eg 65DM4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captain chaos Posted April 6, 2013 Author Share Posted April 6, 2013 The 65DM4 is the one we have... My attention is now turning to testing the distributor... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captain chaos Posted April 6, 2013 Author Share Posted April 6, 2013 ...I'm now measuring across the coil whilst cranking...voltage drops to 9V and is pretty stable ..8.8..9.2 ish...should there be a greater variance indicating that the distributor is not triggering? Thanks all... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Locust Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 Blatmail your address if you need a scan of the Metro manual. There is also typically a ballast resistor in the form of a resistive cable buried in the loom, check you have got voltage when the key is at crank and run positions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Jonathan Kay Posted April 6, 2013 Member Share Posted April 6, 2013 That's a bit low. I don't know how to test your ignition. How about putting a good battery in parallel, measuring the voltage while cranking, and if it's higher seeing if the engine starts. Jonathan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Chips Posted April 6, 2013 Share Posted April 6, 2013 Hi If you have a normal coil fitted as standard ie live feed in, -ve out, try removing the wire which goes to earth via distributor and use this as a 'make & break' connection by touching its mating terminal and removing. This should induce the coil to to off load its charge. Check this as I suggested in my last post. This should elliminate (dodgy spelling?) the coil and put the focus on the distributor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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