A "curly" fault in a distributor

[Leo Bolter]

Here’s what was a really “curly oneâ€

[rob needs]

Great story Leo,i like that bit about.."he was by the poor frustrated girls side".... with his trusty tool in his hand. What was a really curly one.

I'm suprised you had time to sort the car out!


nice pic by the way.

[Leo Bolter]

Whoops! . .

"he was by the poor frustrated girls side".... with his trusty tool in his hand.

. . . . that may just have been a slip of the typing finger! It was possibly meant to be " . . . with his trusty TOOLBOX in his hand" . . . or maybe it wasn't . . . ?

Cheerfully, (or maybe that should be hopefully!), Leo

[Leo Bolter]

Here's another "curly one"!

Many years ago . . . (this is as all good stories should start!),â€

[Keith Andrews]

the owner of which did not encourage, by any stretch imagination, such cars as old Javelins to come to him to be fixed

I understand that...
A very good Freind of mine (was my Best Man ) has his own work shop...even further, my youngest son is now an apprentice with him...
I even have a small section in the shop that has been 'allocated' to me.

He did his' time' on minors, 1100, holdens and other similar cars of that era then eventually became the Workshop Manager.
The francis closed many yrs ago, and he basically took most of the older customers, many who still own their minis, morris, chevys, and often older cars.
He has moved with the times into electronic, computerised, plastic cars and althu is magic with these old cars, as a distinct dislike for them....mainly because of shortage of supply of parts, and because the owners tend to patch rather than replace/fix, which results in more than 1 issue when they brake down. Those that have not been patched, he doesnt mind because they only need servicing rather than fixing.
So often something will be fixed and another issue crops up, and it is often hard to explain/ justify the labour costs involved.

Example: a rear tail light is blown, its replaced and blows again a week or so later, the earths are cleaned, blows again, loose connections/dirty cooroded loom joints, blows again, the dash switch is faulty/contacts dirty, blows again, the wires are old with surface corrosion inside the wires causing resistance inside the loom.
On a more modern car these things dont occur, so changing a buld is just that
On old cars, its hard for the customer to accept checking and fixing all the above labour, just for a light bulb.

[Keith Clements]

I had a similar problem on the Javelin. Car would travel about 10 miles then die. If you let it cool down, it would start and continue.

After many of these occurances and attention of an RAC man (who had no clue) I change the coil. No problem.

Had a similar problem on the Jup. Would not start when warm. Fixed by renovating the main ignition switch/ lighting switch.

A good ohm meter is excellent in finding these sorts of problems.

[Keith Andrews]

Car would travel about 10 miles then die. If you let it cool down, it would start and continue.

After many of these occurances and attention of an RAC man (who had no clue) I change the coil. No problem.

A common occurance when putting Holden/Checy engines into boats (and transplants to other cars...
These run ign on a ballist wire or resister 12v down to 6v...
And not put the balast in ....6v coil on 12v, get a few miles out to sea, stop, clean plugs, and of cause the coil would cool down, go a few miles...

[Leo Bolter]

Interestingly, just a couple of days ago I appropriately wired in a suitable coil and ballast resistor on one of our Princesses . . . the battery was getting a bit tired and the winter’s been pretty cold (by NZ standards, I hasten to add!).

Well, what a difference it made to the starting first thing in the morning . . no cranking over for a few seconds now . . . starts on the first compression stroke! My Wiffy can even start the car on her own!

Now, the thought occurred to me on reading Keith’s post . . . perhaps this would be a very appropriate modification to Javelins and Jupiters to relieve the load on batteries and improve starting . . . . that, and an electric fuel pump to "prime" the carburettors on a Javelin or even a piano wire push-n-pull cable in the cab to actuate the mechanical fuel pump manual lever perhaps!

Neither would upset the purists (like I am!) as there’s no . . or almost no visible changes from original!

Cheers, Leo

[george garside]

the manual petrol pump primer in the cab used to a a fairly common 'mod' particularly on 6 volters for as Leo said it avoided wasting precious amps turning the thing over several times just to pump up the fuel. I fitted it to a couple of Bradfords with bowdon cable connection to cab (choke wire & knob off something or other) it provided 'first compression starting'. The Ten I once had with of course electric pump always started instantaneosly.
george

[Keith Andrews]

Now, the thought occurred to me on reading Keith’s post . . . perhaps this would be a very appropriate modification to Javelins and Jupiters to relieve the load on batteries and improve starting . . . . that, and an electric fuel pump to "prime" the carburettors

Another fix, would be rebuild the carb, in particular the butterfly bushes, and area I believe very often over looked

[Keith Clements]

Check resistance of starter circuit (Starter body to earth cap on battery plus starter terminal to feed cap on battery) (Note 1)is less than 0.01ohms with battery disconnected, but with starter button in. If greater, the 300 Amps will cause a voltage rise on earth of greater than 3v (V=R*I).
A new battery with cold start 300A DIN will deliver greater than 9V for 30sec above -18Deg C. So on a cold damp morning with the car left outside you, with luck, will be left with 6V across the coil.

One way to overcome this is to have a separate feed and return to the battery for the ignition circuit, or a separate battery!

Hence a ballast resistor and 6v coil. I did use one very briefly which was successful, before switching to electronic ignition which has a zener regulator to give a constant power supply.

Note the ignition switch gave the problem with the electronic ignition fitted.

Note 1. You can measure the resistance of starter motor and subtract this from resistance between battery terminal caps (with battery disconnected) and starter relay push button in. This shows up poor relay contact problems, earth strap problems or chassis rusting!