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MG TD TF 1500 - Towed home second time out

The second time out on my 54TF ended in a ride home towed by the recovery truck!!.

Travelled about 14 miles and slowed to negotiate a roundabout when she cut out and refused to start. After about 15 minutes trying various things she started again and I drove another 20 miles. Slowing down at a junction she cut out again and I could not restart. Spent about 2 hours checking out the LT circuit, points etc. fuel pump and for fuel vapourisation. I could trace a HT spark from the coil to the distributor but nothing coming from the distributor to the plugs, failed even to get it to fire once. In the end I had to admit defeat and call out the Breakdown Service. Well he
could not fix it either and 1 1/2 hours later the decision was made to tow it home. One thing worries me that the coil is running quite hot but it gives a good spark when the main lead is earthed to the block.

Well I spent another 2 hours tonight trying various things without success.

Over to you ignition wizards??

Thanks

David Tinker

David - Did you check that the rotor in the distributor is turning? The pin that holds the gear to the shaft could have sheared, allowing the gear to drop into the sump (I know, not what you want to hear). Another posibility, I once had a distributor cap with a short to ground from the coil HT lead. No carbon trace or other telltale marks, but as soon as the HT lead was connected to the distributor cap, the High Voltage wnet away. Replaced the cap, everything worked fine. I have also heard of the roter being shorted to earth, so check that out.
Good luck - Dave
David DuBois

Take an old plug wire, insert the dist. end into the coil, take a spark plug and open up the gap 1/4" (or 5-6mm),into the plug end, lay it on the block/head, and crank. There should be a hot, rapid spark. Reassemble, and put the plug in each of the 4 plug wires- the spark should be the same strength, but 1/4 slower. If a hot spark from the coil and none or weak from the 4 wires, it almost has to be the cap/rotor. Had a related deal with a friend's TC- we changed cap, rotor, coil, points, etc.- all tested fine- as soon as we cranked, no spark. Gave up, friend called Timmy (his Ferrari mechanic !) who advised we must be missing something really basic- no way we had 2 or 3 of everything that were bad. Finally I saw the tach drive was flipping over and shorting on the LT post- felt really stupid !
George Butz

David,
You have no doubt checked this one but....is your TF
still Poss. ground? Any chance leads reversed on the coil?
David
David Sheward

Hi Everyone,
Thanks for all your inputs. Went to a vintage steam rally today leaving the TF at home!! and taking the TD.

Met an old friend who is pretty hot on T Type stuff and I explained the problem to him, seconds later he lifted the bonnet of his TF and gave me a spare rotor arm from his tool box saying 'I think that might be the problem '.

Came home and put in the rotor arm and she fired first time!!

Well I never would have believed that the rotor arm could be the problem as visually it looks ok, it has a one piece brass strip from the carbon contact to the rotor tip and a resistance check with a multimeter is OK. It is obviously earthing through onto the shaft. So She is back on the road putting more miles on the running in exercise.

Thanks again.

David
David Tinker

This thread was discussed between 01/06/2002 and 02/06/2002

MG TD TF 1500 index

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