My series iii will not start. Help!

Whilst driving her to work on Thursday night, she started coughing as i approached a junction. I tried to keep the revs up but the lights changed and i had to stop.
She spluttered and died.
I tried to start her up again, the battery was fine and the engine tried to turn over but just did not catch.
The RAC came out and she was recovered to my home address where she sits on the drive.
I have bought a new ignition coil (intermotor) with ballast risister, and have fitted it.
She still refuses to start.
I have checked the plugs and they seem ok.
I have checked the distributor and it looks ok, although i do not know what to look for really.
I do not know what to do next other than hire a mechanic.
Any ideas?

R-tron said:

The RAC came out and she was recovered to my home address where she sits on the drive.

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Did the RAC mechanic have a look at it?
Start with the obvious...is there fuel...and is it getting through?

Yes, he was quite interested in the vehicle and we ended up having a good chat whilst waiting for recovery.
He said that the fuel is getting through but the spark looked week.
I changed the coil, it still wont start.

How did he test for weak spark? Did you change the ignition lead while when you changed the coil?

Whip off the distributor and have a look at the points - firstly the overall condition...secondly make sure they are actually opening up. Easiest way to do this is to turn the engine over by hand and watch the points open and close. The points fully open should be about the width of a thumbnail (use feeler gauge and correct gaps if you want to do it correctly. May as well check the condition of the distributor cap while it is off.

10 4.
I'll have to inlist my wife to start it up whilst i look.
No i did not change the lead.
Should i have??

Dont try to start it up! Oops should have made that clear! Turn it over by hand (easy way to do it is to turn the engine by the fan at the front of the engine - you will be able to do this at the same time as looking at the points)

You dont have to change the lead when you change the coil, no. But if I had a weak spark the leads would be an early suspect.

is it a ducellier distributor or a lucas one?
what colour is the cap?

lucas- usually black and domed
ducellier- usually brown and square (er) topped.

Capacitor...capacitor...capacitor.... It all fits...sudden stop....weak spark... The wire sometimes fall off em suddenly too. That's where I'd look to start with. Swop it with a new one- can't hurt..

24HF90 said:

Capacitor...capacitor...capacitor.... It all fits...sudden stop....weak spark... The wire sometimes fall off em suddenly too. That's where I'd look to start with. Swop it with a new one- can't hurt..

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i'd look at the gap first.

but i'll give a detailed fault list when i know which dizzy it is

the coil you bought 6 volt with ballast resistor have you modified the wiring otherwise the points gap will reduce as the plastic melts( if points with plastic type cam heel)should bypass ballast resistor on cranking 12 volts on coil ,when running via ballast resistor 6 volt on coil .with the old points tuffnal cam heal coil would over heat ,if wired through ballast with out wiring mod weak spark on cranking.
had this problem on a classic mini someone fitted a metro coil 6 volt no ballast resistor point gap kept closing due to plastic cam heel melting and had tried using Alegro type points as these move up and down to reduce contact wear hope it's of help

mystery said:

the coil you bought 6 volt with ballast resistor have you modified the wiring otherwise the points gap will reduce( if points with plastic type cam heel)should bypass ballast resistor on cranking 12 volts on coil ,when running via ballast resistor 6 volt on coil .with the old points tuffnal cam heal coil would over heat ,if wired through ballast with out wiring mod weak spark on cranking.
had this problem on a classic mini someone fitted a metro coil 6 volt no ballast resistor point gap kept closing due to plastic cam heel hope it's of help

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I have a similar prob with my SII-A and noticed the plastic cam heel looks as if its melted. How do i identify if i have the right coil?
Nigel

standard coil around 3.2 to 3.4 ohms 6 volt coil around 1.3 to 1.6 ohms
( with ballast resistor in circuit around 3.2 to 3.5 ohms .ballast resistor values and 1.3 to 1.6 ohms )
the coil should have a white wire from the starter solenoid direct fed when the start runs ,and a white wire from the ignition switch to the ballast resistor and then connected to the coil both wire on the same terminal

2.25 petrol doesent have the ballast resistor.
thats a v8 thing.

wanna know what dizzy it is.

Well my neighbour is a bit of an engineer and currently rebuilding and 1970's BMW motor bike.
I had him take a look, and he would not leave the thing alone until he found the problem.
The timing was out as the distributor seems a little warn. The cam shaft has a little wobble.
We got it started, once we realised that we put the leads on in the wrong order (the distributor cam runs anti-clockwise. We knew this but it did not stop us from putting the leads on the wrong way round) 1342 anti as aposed to clockwise worked a treat, she fired up and ran.
We then used a timing gun which is just a strobe that connects to one of the ignition cable's and lights every time the cable conducts a spark, to check where the timing marks were and fine tune it. We did this by loosening the distributor a little and turning the whole thing sightly and listening to the engine. Check the timing gun thingy again and hey presto. She ran fine.
I took her to tesco's this morning and filled her up with shopping, when tried to start her up... Nothing.
I looked under the bonnet and found the that fuel filter seemed to be more or less empty.
I fiddled with the accelerator cable a couple of times and tried again and she started.
I was thinking of going to electronic ignition, are they better??
I need a new distributor anyway....

Oh, and my coil says that it has an inbuilt ballast risister. Does this matter?

the thing that puzzles me is if the fuel filter didnt have fuel in it, how does that affect your distributor it sounds like you now have some issue with the fuel side of it, or the problem is the fuel system all along, the fuel system is independant to the ignition.

gonna assume you have a lucas dizzy then.

pull off centre coil lead from dizzy and wedge it under the waterpipe on top of the rockerbox so the shroud hols the brass contact 3/16 (or 4mm ish) away from the rocker cover.
get someone to turn the engine over, you should see a healthy spark and hear the crack it makes, roughly four sparks a second.
or
as above for coil lead, then remove dizzy cap to see points. below the rotor arm (black thing that rotates) is a (usually) red plastic bit that runs on the shaft. you need to get this bit to sit between the "high bits" on the shaft, so the contacts are closed. (may need to flick engine over on starter for this)
once at this position, with ignition on, use a screwdriver to "tweak" the plastic bit off the shaft. you should see the points open, a small spark between them, and a crack/spark from the coil lead.
anything else requires investigation.

safety note- lead from coil generates iro 12000 volts to produce a spark. dont hold it and operate the contacts!

this is what i would have expected the aa man to do.
re fuel filter, is it an inline one? mine always ran like it was half full due to being horizontal and air locking half of diameter.
what carburettor do you have? presuming its a zenith.

Right. OK.
I have now fitted an electronic ignition and have set the timing to around 6 degrees BTDC. She runs and sounds great, but when i tried to start her this morning, she struggled to start. The power is there, and i can see the fuel through the filter. Once she starts and gets warmed up she is fine, right up untill i need her to start again.
What is the matter with her??