8 replies to this topic

[Andy!]

Okay so, i've had my mini on the road for the past 1/2 - 3/4 of the year, except for some minor problems it's been pretty reliable. It's a 998cc automatic engine with a stage 1 kit fitted by the previous owner, SU carb, i believe HS4?

Sunday night i went and put petrol in my mini, car was running fine, everything was normal. Monday morning driving into college, car started to stutter and lose power, this got increasingly worse and i eased the car to college. it was raining so i assumed there must be water in the distributor, so i left it to dry and went to college. Drove the car home and the stutter got progressively worse until i was struggling to keep the car from stalling (bare in mind i have no clutch so it was the engine cutting out and giving up) i managed to get it home and since then it hasn't been able to tick over for over 5-10 seconds as it will stutter and cut out.

The past 3 nights, me and my dad have been going over everything, trying to solve the problem... so far we have.... Checked the points, dizzy cap, HT leads, spark plugs, coil, oil in dash pot and engine, replaced fuel pump, took apart top of carb and cleaned needle and everything, checked float chamber, cyphered out all the petrol and replaced with clean new petrol, air filter. Tonight after cleaning the carb/needle the car eventually turned over and was running healthily for a good 15-20 seconds and then cut out, and it started to run nicely without stuttering for 10 seconds and then cut out. and then progressively got worse again, as we left it it was churning but not igniting, even though the spark plugs were getting wet and smelt like petrol, and there was a spark. so i have no idea how it isn't igniting.

Sorry for rambling and not sounding very technical, i just didn't want to leave out any information that might help diagnose this problem. One friend has suggested that the carb is knackered, but i have no way to test this as i'm only allowed to borrow parts off my brothers mini that aren't too serious (spark plugs, ht leads, coil etc)

[Pigeonto]

Just a thought.It ran 15-20 seconds after putting fresh petrol in the carb.Can you say you looked closely at the petrol which came from the carb?In particular are you familiar with how water looks when in with petrol.It occurred to me that the 15-20 seconds of running ok was just enough to send new petrol from the tank which may have water in it. Pull off the fuel supply pipe to the carb, crank over and catch the fuel coming up.Then check it for water

[Badboytunes]

Did you change the condenser?

[Andy!]

Just a thought.It ran 15-20 seconds after putting fresh petrol in the carb.Can you say you looked closely at the petrol which came from the carb?In particular are you familiar with how water looks when in with petrol.It occurred to me that the 15-20 seconds of running ok was just enough to send new petrol from the tank which may have water in it. Pull off the fuel supply pipe to the carb, crank over and catch the fuel coming up.Then check it for water

We cyphered out the fuel and it looked like normal petrol, my dads quite used to cars and knows his way round minis quite well and he said it looked okay.

Did you change the condenser?

No we didn't would that have such a catastrophic effect though?

[cradley-heathen]

just to be sure of the petrol being good, it may be worth getting a can of fresh stuff.

disconnect the fuel line going from the tank to the pump.

remove the top of the float bowl and empty it (clean rag/syringe etc)

fill it with fresh fuel and start the car, as it runs continue to top the float bowl up from a little tot, like an aerosol lid.

this will prove the petrol is ok, or not.

[Andy!]

Yeah we took all the fuel out and put decent fresh fuel in, didn't seem to have an effect. Past day or so, it hasn't even 'ignited' so to speak, it just churns now, my dad tested to see if there was a spark from the main lead coming out of the coil that goes into the distrubtor, and apparantly there isn't one today, so now we're checking leads and stuff from the battery, we tried the coil yesterday.... could it be that the battery is on it's way out? would an electrical fault like this cause all the stuttering and gradual breaking? as i thought it would of just cut out all together... or is this just another fault to add insult to injury?

[MIGLIACARS]

for what it costs replace the point and condenser, dizzy cap and the coil. they will then be eliminated. make sure the battery is fully charged.
if the plugs are wet and there is a spark change the plugs once they are fowled they will not clear them selves unless the ignition system it top notch which on most minis isnt.
make sure there is 12v s at the coil if there is make sure u have 12v at the points.


also u can poor some fuel into the cylinders to get it started

thinking about it 14 years ago in my first car which was a metro my car started doing this and it turned out to be the points closing up and eventually sticking

Edited by MIGLIACARS, 29 November 2012 - 10:01 PM.

[Andy!]

for what it costs replace the point and condenser, dizzy cap and the coil. they will then be eliminated. make sure the battery is fully charged.
if the plugs are wet and there is a spark change the plugs once they are fowled they will not clear them selves unless the ignition system it top notch which on most minis isnt.
make sure there is 12v s at the coil if there is make sure u have 12v at the points.


also u can poor some fuel into the cylinders to get it started

thinking about it 14 years ago in my first car which was a metro my car started doing this and it turned out to be the points closing up and eventually sticking

Yes, it's happened twice in the past year, not as severe as this, but as i was slowing down, it would stall and cut out, we fiqured this out to be that the points were closing up and the gap getting smaller and smaller, so we adjusted them and it solved it. But this time it's worse as it was cutting out all the time, slowing down it would die and struggle to re-ignite, and would stutter and struggle when i accelerated. But we've re-done the gaps on the points and it hasnt made a scrap of difference this time

[MIGLIACARS]

just replace them and the condenser