[Healeys] Interesting ignition/starter mystery

[Michael Oritt]

Frank--

If the hot lead to the coil is going through a ballast resistor it is indeed
possible that voltage is too low while cranking.  For its Unilite and
Maglite setups Mallory recommends pulling an additional (unballasted) lead
to the coil energized off of the starter switch so that you get full voltage
while starting and somewhat reduced voltage while running.  Perhaps this
will help with this part of your situation.

Best--Michael Oritt

On Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 5:45 AM, Frank <tonup at tellink.net> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> OK, maybe not interesting to me anymore.  More like exacerbating!
>
> The car isn't a Healey but is a Jag.  The parts are very similar if not the
> same.
>
>
> I've been having some trouble with my '61 Mk2 3.8 auto.  This is a
> complicated story but I've tried simplify things.  Here is the present
> situation:
>
> The problem is that it won't start when hot (warmed up).  It starts cold
> just fine and seems to run fine.  It will crank over OK when hot but won't
> catch.  Every once in a while, just as I stop pressing the starter button,
> it would start.  Thinking that this might be too low of a voltage to the
> ignition while cranking I attached a small 12V gel battery to the coil and
> distributor.  It started just fine.  Disconnect the extra battery and
> connect the coil back to the wiring harness, cranks fine but won't start.
>
> I still need to run a jumper directly from the battery to the coil to
> eliminate the ignition switch and the rest of the wiring harness as the
> problem.   I'll also clean the battery terminals.  I'm now thinking the
> starter is drawing too much current or the battery connection is weak.
>
> So my question is:  Why would the starter draw so much current (if that is
> what is going on)?  What should I do, does the starter need new
> bushings/bearings?  Or is there a short in the starter?
>
>
> Now for the longer story--
>
> This last Spring I took the car into town to get gas after having been
> parked for Winter, everything seemed fine.  I filled it up and tried to
> start it up again and it cranked fine but wouldn't start.  Ran the battery
> down and had it towed home.  Charged the battery and it started right up
> (it
> had cooled down).
>
> So I bought a Pertronix and installed that.  I go for a test drive and it
> begins to cut out on me.  It eventually stops running and I can't get it
> started.  I took a look and found the inside of the distributor cap is
> damp.
> After letting the car cool it then starts.  On my way home it does this two
> more times.  It looks like the upper radiator hose has some small cracks.
>  I
> replaced the hose, ignition wires, distributor cap, and the Lucas Sport
> coil, removed the Pertronix and put the points back in.  The spark plugs
> look fine with the insulators a light grey color so I put them back in
> instead of replacing them.
>
> Now the car starts fine when cold, runs fine when hot and doesn't seem to
> cut out (I haven't taken it out on the road yet).  It won't start when
> warmed up unless I use a separate battery as I've described above.
>
> Looks like it might be three issues:
> 1) radiator hose- while a problem that needed to be fixed maybe it wasn't
> the cause of the no start problem
> 2) Pertronix-  I still don't have enough information to arrive at a
> conclusion.  I was using a sport coil without a ballast resistor, maybe it
> got too hot?
> 3) Not enough voltage to the coil when cranking.  This looks to be the main
> problem but why is it happening?
>
> Does anyone have thoughts or ideas they'd like to share?
>
> Thanks,
> Frank
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