[Healeys] Car dies suddenly

Wed Mar 20 07:25:40 MDT 2019

Yes, that’s what I’d always thought. But, I suppose, thinking something doesn’t always make it so.

Simon

From: Healeys <healeys-bounces at autox.team.net> On Behalf Of Tom Felts
Sent: 20 March 2019 11:09
To: Jonathan Einhorn <einhornlawoffice at gmail.com>
Cc: Austin Healey <healeys at autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: [Healeys] Car dies suddenly

I always thought that if a Pertronix goes it goes completely, not stop and go.  I could be wrong, but this is what I have been told many times.

tom

----- Original Message -----
From: Jonathan Einhorn <einhornlawoffice at gmail.com <mailto:einhornlawoffice at gmail.com> >
To: Michael Oritt <michael.oritt at gmail.com <mailto:michael.oritt at gmail.com> >
Cc: Austin Healey <healeys at autox.team.net <mailto:healeys at autox.team.net> >
Sent: Wed, 20 Mar 2019 05:08:09 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: [Healeys] Car dies suddenly

Two things that have caused this to happen to me: one was a bad rotor and the other was my Petronix

Jon

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 19, 2019, at 10:07 PM, Michael Oritt <michael.oritt at gmail.com <mailto:michael.oritt at gmail.com> > wrote:

Hi Michael--

Firstly my condolences to you and your countrymen for the terrible event that happened last week.  

As to the B/W wire's being the culprit I tore it out long ago and replaced the stock cutoff switch with a superior marine unit with plated contacts, so scratch that as a cause.  As I posted elsewhere I am hoping to actually find the definite issue such as a defective component or a failing connection, etc. rather than launching into replacing coils, changing disty's etc. and then waiting for something or nothing to happen.  I'll start by going through the ignition circuit beginning with the key switch and see if I can find the offending bit, etc.  If no luck then I'll start on the Mallory Unilite which, being an electronic system (Hall Effect?) , has no condenser.

Thanks for the input and we'll stay in touch--Michael

On Tue, Mar 19, 2019 at 9:34 PM Michael Salter <michael.salter at gmail.com <mailto:michael.salter at gmail.com> > wrote:

Hi Michael,

100's do have the master switch grounding wire to the master switch so it might well be worth checking.

The symptoms sound very similar to those I encountered with a faulty coil. Mine would run for about 30 minutes fairly consistently before suddenly dying. 

Even when the engine would not start the bad coil still produced a significant spark each time the open points were shorted with a screwdriver which I at the time, mistakenly,  felt confirmed that the coil was actually okay ... it wasn't.

I was only able to confirm that the villain was in fact the coil by installing a replacement.

I have encountered very similar symptoms with a faulty condenser which was confirmed by spraying it sparingly with ether to cool it down and then finding that the engine started immediately.

As I'm sure you are aware a fuel delivery problem never causes the engine to stop dead ... it typically sort of peters out!!

 I would recommend trying the condenser trick and then, if a regular coil can be used as a substitute for the Mallory try a substitution.

M

I wonder where the term "peters out" comes from ... Google time.

On Wed, Mar 20, 2019 at 2:13 PM <simon.lachlan at alexarevel.plus.com <mailto:simon.lachlan at alexarevel.plus.com> > wrote:

I’m presuming that the car’s a 100? You make reference to 4 plugs…..

Do 100s have the dreaded white wire from the on/off switch in the boot? Do 100s have the switch even? Anyhow, that wire shorting out has caused endless tears.

Or is it a black/white wire?

Worth a look.

Simon

From: Healeys <healeys-bounces at autox.team.net <mailto:healeys-bounces at autox.team.net> > On Behalf Of Michael Oritt
Sent: 19 March 2019 17:46
To: Austin Healey <healeys at autox.team.net <mailto:healeys at autox.team.net> >
Subject: [Healeys] Car dies suddenly

Yesterday morning I went out for a drive and after about five miles the car suddenly died. There was no rough running, sputtering or missing leading up to it—the car simply died. I coasted to the side of the road and after about 30 seconds since the key was still on I pushed the start button. To my surprise the car started immediately, revved freely and idled smoothly. A bit perplexed I decided to drive on to see what would happen now that I was paying close attention. The car accelerated smoothly and ran fine for about 1/2 mile and then it died again in the same manner as earlier. I shut off the key, popped the hood and examined the ignition system. Everything seemed fine—all spark plug leads were firmly in place as was the lead from the coil to the distributor. The power wires to the coil were tight and the harness/connector to the distributor (see below) seemed fine.

After scratching my head for a couple of minutes I got in the car, turned on the ignition and pushed the start button. Again, the car started right up and ran normally. With fingers crossed I headed for my shop/garage, about ten miles away and got there without any further event. Though the problem did not seem to be fuel related I decided to verify that this was not a fuel delivery issue. I have a double-headed SU fuel pump wired to a switch mounted just behind the driver’s seat which allows me to switch between pumps as well as turn the fuel pump off. While I was running the car at highway speeds it ran perfectly on either pump and when I selected the “off” position it slowly lost power as I expected it to—but in no way like it had suddenly twice died 15 or so minutes earlier. This indicated I was not dealing with a fuel issue but rather something related either to the ignition system or to the primary wires that run to it. 

This morning I dove a bit deeper to try and diagnose the problem. The car has a Mallory Unilite ignition system tied to an MSD coil which has been in place and performed faultlessly for a number of years. I removed the distributor cap and everything appears to be okay, at least visually. The interior of the distributor was clean and dry as was the cap, leads, carbon contact, optical reader, etc. Mallory specifies the use of a ballast resistor in the lead from the power source to the coil and with the engine fast-idling I tested 12.5 VDC to the resistor and about 5.5-6 VDC out of it and at the positive coil terminal. 

I have a large low-oil pressure light that is mounted in the dash in place of the original overdrive switch. It is wired from the ignition switch through a 10 psi normally-closed switch mounted in the oil pressure gauge sender line and then to the light. I point this out because both times when the engine shut down yesterday the light immediately came on, from which I conclude that the ignition switch itself is not the source of the problem. And though I did not remove the ignition key switch the wires to and from it seem tight and intact.

So my question is: What do I do? I hate to throw parts at it without finding something that appears to be defective but I don’t know where to start any further tests, etc. I also don’t want to simply wait for the issue to happen again. BTW over the weekend I drove about 150 miles with no issues whatever. Beyond installing four new plugs last week I have not performed any work related to the ignition system. All suggestions/questions welcome….

Best--Michael Oritt, BN1

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