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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - timing/ pertronix adventure continues

oh man do I suck at this. In the last hour i have: 1. failed to start the engine, and 2. nearly set the car on fire.

I lined up the timing marks, fit the distributor with the rotor lined up for the #1 cylinder, connected my circuit tester to the positive terminal on the coil and the negative terminal on the battery. Turned the distributor body until the test light dimmed and tightened the distributor clamp to keep the distributor from rotating anymore.
I installed the distributor cap, and tried to start the car... it turned but didn't fire, and then smoke starts coming out from under the hood. The positive wire from the ignitor unit got crossed with one of the other wires and shorted (i think). The white wire from the wiring loom and the red wire from the ignitor were both melted through in patches. I'm still not sure exactly how it got shorted?? but i don't totally understand what each wire there does.

I ended up stripping the tape off the wirign loom back to the joint right above the ignition coil wiring to make sure i had all the melted part out. I will splice in a new section of white wire, replace the points and try to get the car running again.
Chris Edwards

Most likely you caught part of the red wire between the cap and dissy body.

it is a neg. ground car?

did you use any screws (sheet metal screws recently into the fire wall, or other areas that the loom is at?

check the loom thur all the cravices to make sure it isnt rubbing agianst sharp edges.

also check your the tachometer, it might have gotten toasted as well.

Rough day Ah, yeah me to

I got the carbs finally working and spent the rest of the day trying to un-fresse my new electric fuel pump, finally just got it working about 20 minutes ago...So Hopefully tomarrow is the day I can fire up my engine

Prop...loom fires, yeah they are fun
Prop

i can't believe how easy this went... I spliced in a new white wire and put the points back into the distributor. Lined up the engine to TDC, inserted the distributor, turned it until the points were just about to open... and the engine started on the first turn of the key. I never would have gotten this to work without the advice of this board on my previous thread. so thanks :)
Chris Edwards

This thread was discussed between 27/02/2010 and 01/03/2010

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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