12 replies to this topic

[deanymini]

i had my new exhaust fitted yesterday but this morning it just wouldn't start. its always been a bad starter but even after 10 minutes of trying it just wouldnt fire up. i called the green flag out and he said that he thought my timing was out and it was producing a weak spark. i told all this to my dad and he reckons that it might be due to the new exhaust.

so, do you reckon that the exhaust could be the reason for this?

by the way, the car turns over fine, it just fails to ignite.

[The Matt]

What exhaust have you swapped to and what was on it before?

To be honest, I can't see an exhaust making that massive a difference really. Did the Greenflag actually get it running then? If he said timing is wrong and the spark is weak, then address that first.

[deanymini]

it had a twin DTM on before but ive swopped that for a maniflow 1 7/8'' side exit jobbie.

yeah, he got it running in the end. it was on the verge of starting all the time but just wouldn't fire up completely. with a bit of choke and dabbing at the accelerator it just managed to start.

why would the spark be weak?

[The Matt]

well, basic igntion stuff really, points, coil etc.

[Bungle]

a exhaust wont make a week spark

[Dan]

Sounds like ballasted ignition being used with the start bypass disconnected to me. Check that the exhaust people haven't knocked off the White/Yellow wire from the correct terminal on the solenoid and put it back in the wrong place. Or they could have knocked it off at the coil end I suppose.

That is if you have ballasted ignition. All Mini's after '84 should have.

[deanymini]

i'll take a pic tomorrow and see what you think because i dont know anything about my ignition setup other than it is of the metro electronic variety and not points

[Dan]

What colour are the wires feeding the coil and dizzy pack and how many are there?

[Jimmyarm]

Have a look at a couple of basic bits as well such as the earth strap and check the battery terminals are on properly and clean (assuming the greenflag man didnt do this !)

Edited by Jimmyarm, 12 January 2007 - 10:55 AM.

[Bass Man]

Is the choke opening fully, I had exactly these symptoms and I found that the choke linkage had seized and the choke was only partially opening

[deanymini]

got round to taking a couple of pics. the first one is a close up of the coil. before i took it into jonspeed im sure that only 2 of the terminals were being used, it now uses all 4. does this image show anything to anyone?

i wanted to show the second image because there is something im not too sure about. behind the coil where the arrow is pointing on the flywheel housing there are two threads. shouldn't these have something in them? or be blocked? sorry for the awful pic!

Attached Files

•  dizzy1.jpg   47.58K   6 downloads
•  dizzy_copy.jpg   55.85K   10 downloads

[deanymini]

right, i swopped a couple of wires on the coil, purely at random, just to see what happened and it fired up.

the picture below shoes which ones i swopped. note that this pic before i changed them.

i dont want to leave it like that if im doing harm to my engine. can anyone help?

after the engine started i turned it off and it struggled to start back up. i changed them back to how they originally were and again it struggled but did start.

Attached Files

•  dizzy1_copy.jpg   47.43K   1 downloads

[Dan]

Sounds like you just have dirty coil connections and moving them has cleaned them up a bit. Firstly, re-make that terrible end on what I assume is your ballast supply. The red one I'll talk about in a minute. The other two should both be white with a black stripe. The coil terminals are actually the small studs on the top of it so both the tags fitted to one stud are the same as each other. Swapping the wires on one stud won't do anything, so long as you don't move them to the other stud. Look at the actual top of the coil, one of the studs is positive and one is negtive. The thick wire with a badly made end should be pink with a white stripe I think, if it is this is your ballasted coil feed. There should also be a smaller white wire with a yellow stripe and this is the cranking bypass. It it possible the red wire is being used for this. It needs to run from the starter solenoid cranking bypass terminal to the coil. Both the pink resistive wire and the bypass wire should connect to the positive. The two white and black wires should be fixed to the negative. I think though that the red wire may be being used to feed the dizzy module. If it is and you have a ballasted system (if the thick wire is pink/white and marked resistive) this is not good. The ballast wire only supplies around 9 volts and the dizzy pack needs 12. Could do with an idea of what colour all the wires are to sort this out really, the ignition system is a bit of a mess there.

Edited by Dan, 12 January 2007 - 06:44 PM.