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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - ignition woes

hi all, after taking a ride on a warm spring day in 74 midget, all running fine, got home to find package delivered with pertronix ignitor and flame thrower coil that i installed right then according to instructions. easy. but no start, no spark. went thru their troubleshoot list and sent unit back for replacement. a week later got replacement and again installed unit in car engine cranks over no start a puff of smoke from under dist. cap and i find new unit is fried. ok i'm going back to points setup, reinstall points and they fry also. try a new set of points, condenser and now only get a click when turning key to start. battery checks ok. any ideas on where and what to start looking for. also checked ground wire in dist. i also have continuity between the low-tension and condenser leads to ground when points are closed and none when points are open. Thanks for any help mc
m curley

your getting some kind of extra grounding imho

Could be a spider in the rev. gauge...but what are the odds of that happening twice...lol.(dont ask)

...to save money get an in-line fuse till you get it figured out, fuses are cheap and easy


Have put any screws into the dash, radio consel, bulk head recently.....what about the rev gauge, any messing around in that area....also check your groment where wires go thur sheet metal....it wont take long for a 35 year old wire to rub thur on some sharp sheet metal edging.

In the mean time, I would diconnect the battery, when your not working on it.

prop
Prop

Probably not the same reason but I also fried my newly installed petronix (one of the worst smells too). The reason for mine going fizz-pop was that the although the car cad been converted from Pos earth to Neg earth, the coil had never been switched over and was still wired up in the positive earth configeration. It didn't seem to affect day to day running with points but the petronix hated it.
I'm assuming thet your car was always negative earth but check that your coil is wired up correctly anyway.
G Lazarus

I would think with the Petronix it has something to do with crossed coil wires? also need to ground it very well On the points, did you make sure you isolated the points plate/post from the condenser/Lt leads with the nylon bush? If it's just clicking look at connections at the starter solonoid, alot going on there and it's easy to knock off a spade terminal when fooling arond in that area.
Hope this is of some help
Mike
MK Mike

ok, lucky that i live near moss motors east. i'll try throwing money at the problem. starting with new solenoid and another set of points. i don't see an ing. switch replacement in catalog. Prop i like idea of inline fuse, where? (-) side of coil to dist.,starter switch to solenoid, how many amps? also MK mike, condenser/lt leads checked with meter. while cranking nylon bush melted any way. running out of points sets.
m curley

I currently have 2 in-line fuses....

1st between the positive side of the coil to dist. and (2nd between the tack gauge wire and the coil....IIRC_....its the little glass tubes, im thinking 15-20 amp in that area

prop
Prop

I would check to see if all connections at the solonoid are tight before replacing it. I have had loose connections lead to no crank condition. Check out this video on Distributors from John Twist, hopefully will help
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fUbvKgmmQQ
Mike
MK Mike

This thread was discussed between 29/04/2008 and 30/04/2008

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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