Vintage Minor Register

Can someone tell me what the gap at the points should be..... i've looked through the manula and can't find it....

TDriven the car today with it's new, now oild and watertight engine and it feels down on power...... which i'm putting donw to bad needle due to different cam, or too small a gapin the dizzy.....

Than ks.

Ronald, Is the timing right? Highlander.

Plug gaps and point gaps 15 thou - see Technical Matters in M 104 - also available as a .pdf in the Members' Area.

I turned the engine over earlier with the dizzy cap off, and as it comes to tdc, the points are starting to open... when in the advanced position..... which i thing is correct..... i might try to advance it a little and see if it revs cleaner..... and drives without pinking.....

ian, i'm useless when it comes to finding info..... sometimes it's easier to look dumb and ask...LOL!!

ps, hope jaynes health is improving!!

Jayne is not doing too bad - got a second blood test coming up shortly - then we'll at least know if the iron is doing any good. Once they have her blood stabilized, then we can get on with the cardio diagnosis. Maybe she also needs plug gaps adjusted - sounds like she and MT have the same problem!

Sound ominous Ian.... as MT seems to have several symptoms aswell...LOL!!

Points were fine, so i advanced the ignition a little, it seemed to rev cleaner, so went for a drive................. and got towed home, got about 2 miles, pop..... and no power...... it would run on full choke, but not for long....... just done compression check, all 60-65psi...... plenty of fuel getting to dashpot.... needle working ok...... i'm confused..............

Ronald, I am not a minor expert re timing. I thought the points should just open - fully advanced - about an inch on the flywheel before TDC. I have seen it written down somewhere but where? With the locking nut on the distributor slack, turn the advance and retard (or the distributor itself) and you should 'hear' if it is running better. All the best Highlander.

On sv its points just opening at tdc (marked on flywheel at back) FULLY RETARDED, not advanced, i have heard you can set it slightly more advanced but would check the plugs to see if it's running too advanced or lean in case you burn out plug etc! I assume it would be the same for cammy engines. My manual suggests 20 thou for plug gap...
PS you can search for key words in previous posts by using search at top of page, I find this quite useful if i think it's been covered before

It could also be an HT lead breaking down. Check the plugs if one seems oily and dirty compared to the others it could be a misfire on that cylinder, ie HT lead breaking down. The other test for them is to put an ohm meter at the end of each HT lead and check the resistance of each. If one is majorly different to the rest it will be faulty and need replacing
Bruce

turned out that last night the needle dropped out of the carb... hence no fuel getting in...LOL..... but it still feels underpowered, the engine builder says do more miles... it;'ll loosen up.... we'll see, at the moment it simply won;t go up hills, the old engine almost had more ooomph.....

I have noticed that the dots on the front of the camshaft don;t line up when at tdc.... the cam is one tooth out, but i moved it round, and it ran like a bag of poo..... is it normal with the modern 12/12 ?? camshaft that it sits one tooth out....???

Ronald,

I never go by the dots - they are usually invisible on the gears I have dealt with anyway. I eyeball the thing - set no. 1 at TDC and the cam lobes for no. 1 cylinder should form a symmetrical 'V'. Slightly tricky to set up because of the helical nature of the teeth, so the cam rotates as you settle it into the bevel gear, but it is pretty obvious once the caps are tightened down if the V is symmetrical or not.

Thats how it is set Ian, which is what i thought was right anyway really, i was willing to pop the cam off to try though........ but as i say, it did run, just worse...LOL....

just needs mileage on it i think, not sure how many it'll get before the rally though...!