Kevin,
Ray McCrary's suggestions are excellent. Old grounding connections
especially in wet weather can be "fun".
A long shot nobody has mentioned yet is the spring loaded carbon rod inside
the top of the distributor cap. If it is hanging up and losing contact with
the center of the rotor you could lose or regain spark for no outwardly
apparent reason.
Jon
-----Original Message-----
From: Ray McCrary [mailto:spook01@home.com]
Sent: Sunday, June 04, 2000 1:09 PM
To: Kevin & Deana Brown; MG T List
Subject: Re: Help - No Spark - What is going on??
K,
Start with the basics.....
Are the points grounding?? Make sure the wire that acts as a ground for the
points is intact. Is the condenser good? Is there power getting to the coil
from the ignition switch? . If it quits again, jump a power wire from a
battery source to the ignition wire side of the coil. Does it start? If
so, the switch is suspect.
Check the dist cap; are there any carbon arcing marks on it? How about the
rotor? Be sure that you have continuity through the coil. Collapse the
field manually to check for coil secondary output. Be sure of continuity
through the point to coil wire.
After re-reading your post, I wonder if you don't have several things that
went wrong at once. Maybe a bad coil (or even two!), as well as a bad
ground.
Anyway, hope this helps.
Best,
Ray McCrary
"Speed is Life;
of course Luck and Altitude
are helpful, too."
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin & Deana Brown" <MGTRAutoXr@sprintmail.com>
To: "MG T List" <mg-t@autox.team.net>
Sent: Saturday, June 03, 2000 7:57 PM
Subject: Help - No Spark - What is going on??
> I need your help! Two weeks ago I was driving my TF 1500 to a car show
> 90 miles away (the first time the car had been on the road in 25
> years). It ran great at 65 to 70 miles per hour, no problems at all.
> However, after about 40 miles the water pump started leaking a little.
> After, 65 miles it started to miss a little. I stopped and checked the
> distributor cap, dried it out and wrapped plastic around it. It started
> right up and ran fine but after a few more miles it started to miss and
> died. I pulled off along the Interstate and started to check things
> out. Float bowels had plenty of gas and a good flow of gas was flowing
> from the fuel line. I used my test lamp and determined that I had power
> to the distributor and coil. The points were opening and closing fine
> so I started checking spark. I soon determined that I had no spark at
> all, even if I stuck a screwdriver right in to the coil. I had replaced
> the plugs, points, distributor cap, rotor, condenser and coil. The
> original spark plug wires were still in place except for the coil wire
> because Abington Spares sent me a Lucas Sport Coil without a screw in
> top; therefor, I had used an old TR6 coil wire. All of the new ignition
> parts looked fine. I reinstalled the old condenser, but still no
> spark. I figured that my coil was bad and since I forgot to bring the
> old one, I called my wife on the cell phone and told her to bring the
> truck and trailer. I then got to have fun loading the car on the
> trailer in the rain along side the Interstate with traffic whizzing by
> at 75 mph inches away. To hake a long story short, one of the ramps
> slipped and when I was laying under the car with the jack under the
> differential trying to get the left ring spring shackle off of the ramp
> the car attacked me. Actually as soon as the shackle lifted off of the
> ram the car rolled backwards quickly. Somehow I managed to shoot out
> from under the car without being run over and then run a few steps down
> the side of the road , catch up to the car, reach inside and pull the
> emergency brake handle before the car hit anyone (luckily I had removed
> the drivers side (rhd car) side curtain just for such an eventuality. I
> then went on to the show and won first place (with the car still on the
> trailer) since no other T series MGs elected to show up in the rain. I
> then went home and started swapping coils, dist. caps and condensers,
> and hot-wired the coil directly to the distributor all to no avail.
> Sometimes I would have spark and the car would run fine for a few
> seconds and then it would die and I would have no spark at all again.
>
> Last weekend I determined that the connectors on the wires to
> distributor (from the ignition and to the dist.) were a little loose and
> that the coil wire was bad (very high resistance). I put the old coil
> wire and lucas sport coil (with a screw on terminal) back in and
> replaced the loose connectors and the car ran perfectly, though I didn't
> have time to really drive anywhere. Note that I am now using the
> original spark plug wires and coil wires which are made of stranded
> copper and have the proper screw on terminals and copper discs.
>
> This afternoon I drove the car in to town, about 10 miles away, to get a
> flat tire fixed (those roofing nails will get you every time!). The car
> ran perfectly and after several stops I headed back home. When I was
> almost home and driving 55 mph hour down the highway the car suddenly
> sputtered, backfired once and died in quick succession. I stopped and
> started to check it out and discovered that I again had now spark. I
> can get spark for a few seconds, and then it quits again. I had my wife
> tow me home, we made it fine except for her starting too quick and
> pulling one side of the bumper off (luckily it was the old one that
> needed replaced). I can get the car to start and run for a few seconds,
> but then it dies again and I have no spark. These ignition systems are
> pretty simple but I am at loss with what is going on. I haven't really
> dived in to it again this time since I wanted to ask everyone's opinion
> first. Does anyone have any ideas? I have to go to another car show
> next weekend about 70 miles away and would like to drive the car but I
> might be forced to trailer it if I can't get this sorted out. Thanks.
>
> Kevin Brown '54 MGTF 1500 rhd
> Odessa, MO
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