Cranleigh Classic - August

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John Coward
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Re: Cranleigh Classic - August

Post by John Coward »

HI Peter,
Many thanks for organising Cranleigh again - it was my first time there and I was impressed with the number and variety of classics present.
A club success I think, although August is a really difficult month to get people to turn up.
John
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peterc
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Re: Cranleigh Classic - August

Post by peterc »

Thanks John, I think everyone enjoyed the day and thankfully we only had the one very brief shower and not the thunder and lightning that had been forecast at one stage.
DSC_6130R.jpg
The new 289 flag was a good addition.
We left at around 4.45 and the queue to get out was only around 50 metres and moved quickly as apposed to that at 4.00.
Peter C
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clive
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Re: Cranleigh Classic - August

Post by clive »

Good turnout chaps.
Cheers, Clive.

(If I'm not here I'm in my workshop or on the golf course!)
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amulheirn
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Re: Cranleigh Classic - August

Post by amulheirn »

Thanks again Peter!

I didn't get home very successfully unfortunately. Electrical fault within a few miles of Cranleigh caused the engine to die, and I cruised to a halt in a country lane outside a house. After 10 minutes of me and my passenger scratching our heads, two pre-war MGs and an MG midget turned up, pulled into the house and came out to offer help. A family of MG owners had just come back from some MG car club driving tests and I was outside their house. They made us both tea and helped with parts and diagnosis for the next hour or two, getting us going again with a spare coil. Really helpful and we were very grateful for the tea.

It turned out that the oil had boiled out of the coil, leaving the HT socket on top of the coil full of oil. The coil was very hot, as was the Mallory distributor (which has to be used with a ballast apparently). I checked the voltage on both sides of the resistor to find 12v on each side - not ~10v on one side as I had expected. So somehow the resistor had failed and was now giving no resistance at all, and therefore supplying 12v constantly, rather than just when cranking. That seems unusual: I could understand infinite resistance if the resistor wire inside it burned through, but no resistance seems pretty weird.

Anyway, we broke down again 10 miles further on and had to get a tow home.

Coil and resistor were new items this year with about 300 miles on them since fitting. I'm concluding that attaching both to the end of a cylinder head is too hot a location, led to premature breakdown of the resistor, which then boiled the oil out of the coil. So the plan is to relocate them to the side of the engine bay. I know some people put the coil in the valley between the heads, but I was worried about fuel leaks and electrics getting mixed up.

Some work to do - hopefully this'll sort it.

Cheers,
Andy
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peterc
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Re: Cranleigh Classic - August

Post by peterc »

Sorry to hear you had big issues trying to get home Andrew.
I have heard of coil problems before with Ford engines and I think a Mallory distributor.
Suggest you search the forum for possible causes.
It is most likely a compatibility issue between coil, distributor and ballast resistor. Do you have an amplifier on the dizzy or is it a basic points system.
Personally I have always thought that the coil should be vertical but I have seen many installations where it’s horizontal including mounting off the head within the V so I guess it ought to be OK.
Mounting on the engine will give it quite a dose of vibration which would be my concern.
Good luck in finding the cause.
Peter C
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