Smoking Distributor after head change...any ideas?

Hi,

Just (finally) got round to changing the head on my 2 1/4 petrol (turner head) built it all up again, new oil, tappet spacing etc. and now just tried to turn it over and i got smoke pouring out of the distributor.

Any ideas what i've done?The HT leads are all in place and the correct order as before (i was sensible and labelled them before taking it to bits) I'm a bit confused really as i haven't done much electrical, only mechanical stuff on it...

Thanks Mike

A smoking dizzy,
would that be B&H or silk cut?

Seriously though, it sounds like either the condensor has fried, or possibly the carbon brush in the centre of the dizzy cap has toasted.
Also check for a short where the wire goes into the dizzy that goes to the coil, maybe you pulled it and earthed it.
Does the coil get hot?
All the above assumes that its an electrical fault, its unlikely the smoke is getting past the dizzy from the engine.
Also check to make sure something mad hasnt happened like you put both coil wires on the same terminal, that would certainly get the dizzy smoking.

Right, burnt out wire inside dizzy = cause of smoke. T'is the little wire which goes between the return port (i assume) and the side of the coil.

During engine swap the much thinner (i assume negative?) wire back to the coil did get pulled out and quickly replaced, this could be the problem, it might have been plugged back into the wrong side of the coil?

So, next question, which side of the coil should it be on? i can't seem to find a schematic of the coil in the haynes with the side ports...?

I am currently replacing the wire - is it likely i have done more permanent damage somewhere?

You might have got away with it, if owt's kanacked then its going to be the ignition switch.
The coil might be marked + and -, the - goes to the dizzy(I think white with blacktripe), and the + goes into the loom.
I think its likely you put the wire on the wrong terminal on the coil, that will most certainly toast things, as battery power will go straight through the points to earth, dead short.
If the coil isnt marked, temporarily disconnect the wires to the coils terminals, if theres more than one to each terminal keep them connected, get a test bulb (no. plate light or something like that) switch on the ignition, connect one side of the bulb to the chassis, then try the other side on the coils wires, the side that lights up the bulb is the wrong side, connect the dizzy wire to the side that does not light the bulb.

wahay!!! The beast lives

Yup, wrong terminal - that's what you get for using friends to help you (to be fair i couldn't have done it with out them)

And with no exhaust attached currently she sounds sweet!!!

Yey, so happy, at least i have one working car again now

Thanks for your help Dr. P

Absolute pleasure.
Which way do I look to see the cloud of smoke then.
Well done mike, enjoy the old girl again.