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MG MGA - Initial engine start-up

Greetings folks,

O.K.- Barney sent me the instructions for my initial engine start-up. The engine is sitting in the frame and I wanted to get it up and running before I drop the body shell back on. I thought I was doing everything correctly but still no fire. With a positive ground set-up, here's how I have the electrics hooked up. Starter- Neg. to the starter motor post and pos. to a grounding point. No real problem here in that it turns over nicely. Ingition- I just put a new Sports Coil on as I thought the old one wasn't working, so we can rule the coil out...hopefully. I'm running off my everyday car battery using jumper cables. I'm running the coil postive post to the distributor. I hook up the neg. side of the coil to the jumper cable, neg. post side to the car battery and get tiny sparks when I do that. Gravity feeding the carbs...no leaks....yea! No fire...crap! After a few attempts, the coil seems warmer than I think it should be? Should it be warm at all? I took the distributor cap off and with a screw driver, seperated the points to see if a spark would show....there was none. Any thoughts on what I'm not doing correctly. Cheers!
Robert Maupin

If there is no spark when you separate the points but you get a flash when you hook up your coil, and it gets warm, it sounds like your points are short circuit even when parted. check your points and the wire to them.
Lindsay.
Lindsay Sampford

Just a thought on a side issue as you seem some way off finishing the car - Assuming the engine is a total rebuild, many of the vital parts will be coated with assembly lube. Firing up the engine will wash it all off. Unless the engine is then very frequently it could suffer accelerated wear.

Is the distributer a modern Chinese variant? I understand from Bob West that a significant number from one manufacturer had a faulty wire that Lindsay is referring to.

Steve
Steve Gyles

I've just had another thought Robert, make sure that you have correctly fitted the insulators that go either side of loop at the end of the points spring. The wire teminal fits between the spring and the insulator, NOT under the teminal nut.
Lindsay Sampford

Thanks Lindsay,

In one of Barney's articles he lists this as a "kick yourself" moment. I don't know if this is "the" problem but it was certainly one of them (I'll just have to take them in order) in that I did place the low tension and condensor wires on top of the nylon bushing/under the nut causing the points to ground.....duh! Sometimes, trying to be so careful to get the major stuff correct, the little things are done quickly and therefore...incorrectly.
My good neighbor is stopping by tomorrow afternoon for another try at getting the engine fired up. I'll post a note once it roars to life!

Steve, you're correct on the washing point. However, I felt it more important to make sure the engine was in order before I mounted the body so as to make any adjustments much easier to access. Lesser of two evils? Running the crossflow head sure makes the right side of the engine a busy place to reach certain areas......distributor amoung them.

Cheers!
Robert Maupin

This thread was discussed between 01/08/2009 and 02/08/2009

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