Hot Start Issues - Lack of Juice to the Coil?

Hi,

My S3 with a defender 2.5 petrol is an absolute sod to start hot - from cold it'll go within a few seconds with a bit of choke. Hot it can be virtually impossible to restart - 30-40s cranking then it will go if you are lucky...

After being unable to start it at a PnP site over the weekend, I got a bump start, where it fired literally within 3 feet of being pulled. Playing around later on, if you get it spinning over, drop back from start on the key momentarily, it'll go (so it's firing while the engine is spinning over under not a lot of starter load) - the only thing I can think of is that the starter is stealing all the juice, and the series wiring isn't giving enough to the coil to give a good spark..

It's running a new coil (which doesn't get hot), a simon BBC electronic dizzy and other than that runs perfectly. Timing, mixture etc are all good.

Has anyone else come across anything similar? I was thinking of maybe running a permanent +ve feed to the coil direct from the battery switched by a relay from the original coil feed to see if it helps...

Does sound like ignition, though I had fuel problems when hot until I rerouted the fuel line.

What battery voltage do you have - get a multimeter. Mine was like that occasionally when I had a knackered old battery. Also check points gap, condensor (swap), alternator charging voltage, voltage at coil (cold, running, cranking).

These multimeters aren't bad for doing auto stuff: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gunson-G418...7S3C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337676639&sr=8-1 they have RPM and dwell angle modes. The dwell angle will tell you if you've got points set right. Just doing them with feelers is quite tricky to get right.

The fuel line was cold, one of the PNP guys suggested that too. It was just the incredible ease in which it bump started compared to lots of cranking which points me towards a voltage drop problem..

I'll check the voltages later on - it's on my list of things, I was wondering if someone had come across it before Battery is new..

The Simon BBC dizzys are sealed, so you don't need to worry about gaps etc

no power to the coil when cranking, bad ign switch, diesel switch, by pass with new temp wire to test

I'd check the compression