I got to ride in a flat-bed recovery truck today!

Started by John Gervais, June 15, 2018, 05:07:17 PM

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John Gervais

Today was the day I decided to take the mini in for it's biennial MOT inspection.   77.gif

I ate a decent lunch, cycled up to the garage and fired up the mini for the short highway jaunt to the friendly inspection station.  It ran like a champ!   4.gif

The inspection station was just finishing up with a 'walk-in' customer, and there was another waiting, but since I had an appointment, I got right in and handed over the keys.  The guy who's been inspecting the mini for the past 10 years took it for his usual test drive while I chatted with the waiting customer and his family.  Upon hearing the mini returning, we looked toward the bend in the road and saw my mini being driven 'spiritedly' as the inspector rounded the bend and pulled into the inspection bay.  He always enjoys driving 'fun' cars... 

The MOT inspection went well, as expected; passed with flying colors with zero faults/remarks.  Hoorah!   71.gif

Inspection complete and receipt folded and stuffed into back pocket, I drove off, homeward bound!   19.gif

... and promptly lost all power once on the highway.  Stuck in the middle lane in mid-day traffic, it was a bit scary making it to the shoulder.   :-\

The car turns over, has fuel, but will not start.  Hmmm...  After an unsuccessful attempt to secure a tow from a club member, and not being able to hear over the highway din, I called Hyacinth and asked her to coordinate a recovery truck.   ::)

Waiting around 3 hours for him to show up, I managed to get the mini back into the garage and pulled the spark plugs; they look perfect!  Fuel filled a bottle - check!  8.gif

I then attached a bit o'wire to the metal body of a spark plug and grounded it to a head stud, positioning it such by balancing it on the upper radiator hose so that I could see the spark while turning the key. 

A very faint, thin yellow intermittent spark wheezed between the electrodes. 

If a thorough examination of all the electronic ignition module's wiring doesn't reveal any chaffing or electrical shorts, I believe I'll be installing a new coil and reinstalling the contact breaker points very soon.   :-X
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MiniDave

Sounds like the usual suspects - coil.  I'm surprised you haven't installed a points eliminator kit tho......I've had one in my old Jag for about 25 years now and it never fails to start and run.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

John Gervais

"a points eliminator kit"

Of what speaketh thou?  The mini has the Luminition Optronic electronic optical system.
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MiniDave

Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

John Gervais

That's my guess also; you may recall that I had a ballast resistor inexplicably blow/burn through not too long ago and replaced the low-ohm coil w/external ballast resistor with my old Lucas gold sport coil (DLB105), as the Luminition setup requires a minimum of 2.5Ω. 

As with most aftermarket British parts, the instructions can be a bit nebulous.

I'll be fitting a distributor baseplate with contact breaker points while trying to speak with Luminition in an attempt to find out if there's a method of testing the optical switch or the power module - just to make sure that the electronics are still viable.  Afterwards, I'll probably end up using it again.
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Willie_B

Sounds alot like my last stranding, turned out to be the nearly new coil.

LarryLebel

Same for me but luckily it was just down the street from my house.

MiniDave

I had one die on the Bugeye I just worked on too, a new Lucas Sportscoil did the trick......
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

John Gervais

I'll be testing the optical switch and amplifier tomorrow and have a new Intermotor Sports coil on the way from Mr. Calver.

Why the Intermotor?  Apparently, they're the ones who made the original sports coils.

Here's some info - For me, KC's price is better:

https://mossmotors.com/sports-coil-by-intermotor 
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John Gervais

I had a fun day today and might have figured it out.  I made a new, longer ground wire for the power module which enabled earthing at a different location, tidied up and cleaned various connections.  I was then able to test the power module amplifier unit and the switch by following the simple instructions found in the Lumenition technical bulletins by basically laying the coil lead in close proximity to the engine block and watching for a spark to occur when the optical beam is broken.  Easy enough, and HOLY CRAP it's strong.  No kidding, it's audible, fat blue lightning.

The good news - the power module and switch were working fine, but I noticed that the dizzy rotor (Distributor Doctor, red, stamped 'DD') was heavily encrusted with black carbon.  The contacts within the dizzy cap show no evidence of wear.  I cleaned it up, put in on 'the pile o'crap' on the workbench and popped in a new one.  Replaced the cap and grounded a spark plug, turned the engine over and the plug had a big fat spark. 

And then it happened - I then replaced the plugs and fired the engine right up.  Allowing it to warm up, I jiggled and jostled various connections and decided that the 3-pin connector which connects the power module to the optical switch could use an extra cable tie.  Great - I fitted the tie and as I was snugging it up, the assembly slid slightly and presented a bit o'tension on the leads which sit under the dizzy cap.  These leads were promptly caught by the spinning 'chopper' and wrapped around the dizzy lobes; ripping them out of the optical switch, thereby rendering it absolutely useless and irreparable.

Contact breaker points will be fitted tomorrow and a new optical switch will be ordered.
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John Gervais

Took the mini out this weekend for the first drive since June.  Our club had it's last drive for the season, so I figured I'd join in.  Glad I did too - the car died again, this time with the full audience present. 

I planned ahead, though, and brought my timing light, dwell meter, a backplate with points and condenser mounted, feeler gauges and screwdrivers.  So, when the car died, I quickly disconnected the electronics and removed the optical switch, installed the points, and connected to the coil.  Vroom, adjusted the timing - done in 20 minutes.

When the car initially died, the usual crowd gathered to watch as I did my basic trouble shooting and ignition system swap.  When the car was running again and I was reinstalling the fuse box cover, the engine stumbled.  A quick finger on the fuses revealed that the new fusebox (from MiniSpares a couple of years ago) isn't really gripping the glass fuses very well.  In fact, they're loose as heck - the brass sockets are very thin and easily deformed.

Today, I cleaned and reinstalled the original 1979 Lucas fuse box and reinstalled the Lumenition system.

It fired up, but the coil seemed hot after running in the garage - idling and up to 2000-2500 rpm to adjust the timing (probably took 10 minutes, including warm-up).  I think I need to check my LT ground connection.
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MiniDave

I'm glad you got it going again and found the culprit, I had a Pertronix fail on a TR4 recently - I thought these things were "lifetime", but I guess they don't say whose lifetime!

I've had issues with those new fuse boxes too (I get mine from the local Brit parts place) and have to squeeze those contacts together to even hold the fuses.
Complete failure at retirement

1989 Cooper Racing Green
2009 Clubman S
2014 Audi Allroad

John Gervais

Thanks - I hope it's soon solved.  I'll check the distributor's LT ground wire, check the B- to boot floor and hopefully the hot coil issue will be taken care of.  Could have also simply been that I had the engine running in the garage and it wasn't getting a whole lot of air.

The new fuse box is probably the same as yours - very thin contacts and very loose fitting.  Squeezing the contacts together got me through the club drive, but I have very little confidence in it.  The old Lucas unit is much more robust, and though it's got a small chip adjacent to terminal number 3, it's clean and solid.  The chip is hidden under the cover, so it shouldn't be a problem.
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