Bit of a long story....
I had a wierd problem on our FI fastback. It ran fine for months and months, then recently when I decided to service it ready for a drive to the AGM, it absolutely wouldn't start. Of course, by this time I'd spent all my time, and daylight, doing the oil, valves, washing it etc. Then I flattened the battery, so I put it all on charge and left it till sunday thinking the car's never misbehaved, it'll be alright on a full battery. Sunday (of the AGM) dawns sunny but very damp (heavy dew). Nothing from the car. Flattened the battery, and the spare. Lots of swearing by this point, and realisation I'm not going to make it to Conventry.
So, I checked all the spark plugs for shorts (carbon), checked the leads, then got to the distributor - it had loads of black crud in it. Then I checked the cap, and found that the rotor arm had been spark eroding the inside of the cap, and the crud was burned plastic. The damage was BELOW the brass contacts for the plug leads, but I didn't realise the significance. So I took the dizzy out and stripped & cleaned it. Put it all back in. By this time it was dark again. Set the static timing, and started it up. Of course, now it was running OK. Timing light on, and I grabbed the dizzy to twist it. Massive shock. Then (it being dark) I spotted dancing blue lights on THE OUTSIDE of the distributor cap. The rotor arm had eroded a small hole in the cap. So any dampness in the air and there's suddenly a path to ground and no spark. That explained it. Sort of. Later I showed the cap to a mate and seeing the damage below the brass bits, he casually said "its almost as though the rotor arm is too low". Then I checked and of course, I had the wrong cap on the dizzy. It was staring me in the face but I never noticed before. It had run like that for a year or so with no complaints, but now it had holed the cap, and with damp weather, things had come to a head. Even more annoying - I had a spare dizzy with the right cap and rotor.
So its all OK now, but I learned a lesson the hard way. Don't make the same mistakes as me ! The other lesson is don't start long overdue servicing the day before a big trip.
Wouldn't start -> bizarre ignition problem (but sorted no
That explains it - we got a message that you wouldn't be arriving, which said about the dead battery. It seemed a lame excuse at the time!
My son got a see-through cap to put on his Type 3 - started it at night, and lots of lovely sparks everywhere. It was a Beetle cap, so lots of sparks jumping about from the rotor arm up to the leads.
Shame you missed the AGM - I reckon it went really well, and Richardf Brooker got us some privileges - we parked by the planes inside the museum.
My son got a see-through cap to put on his Type 3 - started it at night, and lots of lovely sparks everywhere. It was a Beetle cap, so lots of sparks jumping about from the rotor arm up to the leads.
Shame you missed the AGM - I reckon it went really well, and Richardf Brooker got us some privileges - we parked by the planes inside the museum.
Yes I was annoyed to miss it. First miss in 5 years (thats how long we've had our T3). Looked like a nice museum. I was going to have a good look at the Whittle centre. BTW the Bournemouth Air museum is about to close. Within the month. Never been there though.
I reckon to start with the spark jumped straight from the rotor arm to the metal conacts - only a few mm. But then on a damp day it might have started arcing to the wet plastic, forming some carbon, and the whole thing snowballed from there. No warning signs though - ran well all the way up to the day.
I reckon to start with the spark jumped straight from the rotor arm to the metal conacts - only a few mm. But then on a damp day it might have started arcing to the wet plastic, forming some carbon, and the whole thing snowballed from there. No warning signs though - ran well all the way up to the day.