[Healeys] Car dies suddenly

[P.M. Pollock]

Michael,

Check your battery posts.  I suffered a mild rear-ender, repaired, no apparent 
need for a new battery.  Six months later the car started dying, just as you 
describe.  Drove me nuts until I finally noticed hairline cracks in the battery 
case running from the negative post.  When the battery heated up the connection 
would fail, cool down back in business, etc.

Pete Pollock
BJ7

On 3/19/2019 10:45 AM, Michael Oritt wrote:
> 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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