[Healeys] Interesting ignition/starter mystery

[Chris Dimmock]

Its a process.
1. Check your earth lead. Remove both ends. and Sand/Grind and  
degrease to bare metal. Use some light dielectric grease.
2. Clean both battery terminals. Clean to bare metal and degrease.   
Use some light dielectric grease .
3. Clean the battery lead to the starter. You know the drill....
The next steps are more detailed, but until you've done these, they  
are possibly unnecessary.
Possible step 4 is swap out the coil.
;-)
Chris

Sent from my iPhone

On 08/10/2011, at 8:45 PM, "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
> _______________________________________________
> Healeys at autox.team.net
> Donate: http://www.team.net/donate.html
> Suggested annual donation  $12.75
> Archive: http://www.team.net/archive
> Forums: http://www.team.net/forums
> Unsubscribe/Manage: http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/healeys/austin.healey@gmail.com