> My 75 Midget dies at seemingly random occassions. I can be driving along at a
> steady 55, accelerating, idling, decelerating ... I can't figure out what the
> cause is. The Tach drops immediately to zero and the engine dies.
Look for broken wires inside the connectors at two places:
- Inside the distributor, where the pigtail connects the coil to the
points to ground.
- On the starter, where there should be a fairly thick wire (it's brown
on MGBs) running off the solenoid.
Tim P noticed a broken wire when he pulled the starter off my B on the
Fourth of July. (It's much cleaner now, Tim, you should see it! Come
to think of it, you CAN see it now, the grease is gone! :-)
Anyway, there's a heavy-gauge (8 or 10 gauge) wire -- not the big 1-ga
coming from the battery, and not the 16-ga coming from the switch. This
wire connects to the rest of the car's power -- things like the fuel
pump, the ignition, stuff like that. If it comes loose, instant off.
My B had been exhibiting these symptoms for some time, at random and not
very often (I now suspect, and Tim can verify, that the grease was probably
holding the wire in the connector). Usually, as you say, it would either
fire right up or fire up in a moment. Having now seen the wire that had
come out of the connector, I am reasonably sure that's what went wrong.
Chris K soldered it after we cleaned the wire and the connector, but I
haven't yet tried firing the car up (a few more hours of work...)
> My mechanic thinks it could be the ignition module overheating
Oh. If you have things like ignition modules (I'm not familiar with
the details of the Spitfidget), *anything* could happen.
As for your idle problem, check for intake leaks in the manifold and
carb, especially the throttle shafts. Use carb spray, taking care not
to get any into the throat; if the car wants to stumble and die when
you squirt part of the manifold, you've probably got a leak there.
(Carb cleaner is non-combustible and will cause the car to slow down
if it gets into the intake stream.)
--Scott
|