hello from the side of the road

[sgray]

So here i am, just killing time waiting for Green Flag, by the side of the road again.
Was driving the boy to school - well, nearly to school as he wanted to ne dropped off some way aways - when Trev backfired and stopped. He refuses to restart and I've tried everything I know (which didn't take too long) .

Have tried to detect a spark - there's one from the coil but not at the leads. Changed rotor arm and tried to reset the points. Have stopped now before I flatten the battery. Ho hum at least I'm not halfway to Leeds.

[bmcecosse]

Problem with the dizzy cap - maybe the little carbon brush ? Have a look inside. Otherwise - just jiggle/tug all the connections. You can save the battery by using the starting handle!

[mike.perry]

Cracked dizzy cap? This can have the effect of shorting the spark to the wrong cylinder which could cause the backfire
Loose distibutor - rotating in the clamp?
Carbon brush in the cap OK?
Blown up the engine?
It wants its 1098 engine back!
Looking on the bright side, you dont have to pay for the petrol home

[sgray]

It was the little wire from the body of the distributor to the points. The braiding was still there but the wire had broken inside. The nice man from Green Flag diagnosed it after about 10mins and made me a new one - luckily they sent the mechanic who was much older than the car..

[Judge]

Glad you got it sorted Simon.

[bmcecosse]

Well done the Green Flag man!! That's what they call the 'low tension' wire - and yes it is often neglected in overhauls and is well worth replacing every 10 years or so!

[chickenjohn]

Agreed! Change this little lead every now and a again. I had this go on my Traveller about four years ago. A new one with the proper ends is only about a fiver or so. Failure of this will stop your car dead in its tracks. The connections fail eventually.

(I wonder why the wire isn't soldered on??- looks to be crimped.)

[sgray]

Failure of this will stop your car dead in its tracks.

Yes, it certainly did that - and I felt such a fool, what with all my spares and new found knowledge to hand. Just goes to show there's no short-cut to experience.

Now that I know about this wire you can be sure it'll be the one component that never fails again.

Simon

[Packedup]

(I wonder why the wire isn't soldered on??- looks to be crimped.)

Not only is it crimped, but the terminals on the damned things fatigue and fail along the rivet.. Or at least mine did, and it was maybe 2 years and 500 miles old.

I dug a 45d out my spares box, to bypass that whole issue. And then had the rotor arm fail suddenly, thankfully only half a mile from the local factors.

[bmcecosse]

Good reason to follow my example - and carry a complete spare dizzy in the back. Any ignition problems - just swap dizzies - only takes minutes - saves hours of anguish.