[Healeys] Interesting ignition/starter mystery

[David Porter]

Compression readings?
Fuel pressure reading?
Check the basics first.
Exhaust side tappet sleeves moving?
dave
frogeye at porterscustom.com

Porter Customs   2909 Arno NE
Albuquerque, NM USA 87107
505-352-1378
1954 BN2  1959 AN5
Porter Custom Bicycles

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 www.britishcarforum.com/portercustoms.html
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GO HERE: http://porterbikes.com/  nice pictures-fun facts-my world

-----Original Message-----
From: healeys-bounces at autox.team.net [mailto:healeys-bounces at autox.team.net]
On Behalf Of Frank
Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2011 3:45 AM
To: healeys at autox.team.net
Subject: [Healeys] Interesting ignition/starter mystery

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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