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MG MGA - Initial engine start-up....Part 2

Hey folks,

Thought I was in the money when the issue of the grounded points was corrected. Gathered the necessary support team in the garage, hooked all the electrics up, held our breath, hit the starter and......zip....nada, still no sign of a spark! After trying a few times, I removed the cap and with a screwdriver, opened and closed the points....nothing. So, any ideas where I might look next? Thanks!
Robert Maupin

Right Robert! disconnect the low tension lead from the distributor, disconnect the main high tension lead from the distributor cap. Hold the end of the high tension lead close to but not touching one of the head bolts and tap the low tension lead that you diconnected from the distributor on a bare metal part of the engine. If you get a small spark on the low tension wire but nothing jumping from the high tension wire, you have a faulty coil or main HT lead. If you get a spark from the HT lead then proceed as follows: Make sure that the points are closed and then tap your low tension wire on the distributor terminal, if you get no spark at the HT wire then you have dirty points or a disconnection between the distributor terminal and the points or a disconnected earth strap to the contact breaker plate, if you get a spark, then repeat the operation with the points open. If you get a spark at the HT wire when you tap the low tension wire on the distributor teminal with the points open, then your points are still grounded somehow. Hope this makes sense to you, I could do the test ten times in the time it has taken me to type this! Regards, Lindsay.
Lindsay Sampford

Greetings Lindsay,

Thanks so much for taking the time to type this all out for. Truthfully, I'm so frustrated and beaten up at this point, I'll have to wait for time to pass before I head back out to the ole garage. I'll be off in the morning, taking my wife in for her weekly chemo treatment so most likely won't get back in the shop until Tuesday. Keep in eye on this post and I'll update you once I run through each of your tests. Thanks again...Cheers!!!
Robert Maupin

Hi Robert. There is a very thin, flexible wire inside the distributor. This wire is constantly flexing, as the distributor operates. If this thin flexible wire breaks, you will have no spark. You should remove this flexible wire, and test it for continuity with a VOM or circuit tester. If the wire is bad, it need to be replaced with the PROPER replacement part. DO NOT substitute an ordinary chunk of wire, as it will fail quickly. Hope this might help, Glenn
Glenn Hedrich

Robert I had a similar problem to Glenn with the low tension wire inside the dizzy. The wire has a cloth shielding and mine was falling apart and intemittantly shorting out thus would not start. My capacitor was also bad which is hard to check. I replaced both and she fired right up. Also check that the low tensior wire and capacitor wires are correctly connected to the points and not shorting out to ground, I've also had that problem. Also check the plug wire caps, I've had some that do not have continuity. Also check the rotor, I've also had several bad ones.

It will start when you fine the problem.

Andy 60 Coupe
Andy Preston

This thread was discussed between 02/08/2009 and 05/08/2009

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