A question on timing

Hi there,
Apologies if I seam thick but petrol engines are not my thing. I have a 1954 land rover series one 86” that had a 2 1/4 petrol put in. When running for aprox 20min or more it started cutting out when left idling, A friend of mine recommended that I replaces the condenser as it was more than lightly the course of my troubles. I replaced it with out removing the points. now the car won’t start, or at lest if it does its all over the places and will then cut out, I’m guessing it’s the timing but honesty don’t know! So my questions are

1. Is it lightly that I have affected the timing only replacing the condenser?

2, if so how do I adjust the timing?

I forgot to mention the carb's adjusted O.K and it is known to be trouble free!

Its not likely to be the timing you have altered becuase that would mean turning the distributor one way or another. Its most likley to be the ignition circuit thats causing the problem, you can check this to see if a spark is being generated at the plug by removing one and leave resting on top of the engine and turning over with someone looking to see if it sparks or not? If it does, than you might have got the dist cap wrong way round, so try fitting it through 180 degrees. If it doesnt spark, than its more likely to be a fault on the low power side, like a traped wire shorting or a faulty condensor. Also is the points set to the correct gap?

Oh forgot to mention. Dont touch the lead or the sparkplug when cranking the engine. Serious risk of getting a bad electric shock if you touch it without insulation when cranking the engine!!

Did you do the screw holding the condenser in tight?

Oh, and now's probably not the time to say condenser wouldn't have been my first port of call anyway.
I'd still plumb for fuel, but if your sure it isn't, is the coil getting hot. Warm is OK, but it shouldn't be hot.

I haven check the point’s, what is odd about it is it fine running from cold and not until about 20 mins of running that any problem emerge. The Coil is brand new as are, the leads, sparks and distributor cap. Other wise I would automatically suspect the coil, I did screw the condenser in tight, I have a habit of over tighten things :-(

I will check the battery, The Spark and the gap today, and thank you very much for all your advices I will keep u posted on the results :-S

The coil sounds about right, or could be a balast resistor if it has one, when this goes it normally lets you start the engine but not tickover though. The coil could be breaking down when hot/warm. Does it idle after a little time has elapsed, to allow the coil to cool?

A miner update, a friend of mine set the point gap and adjusted the timing. The engine now has new, sparks, coil, leads, distributor cap, points and condenser, but still has the problem that when hot it will cut out if u take your foot of the gas when warm, I checked the coil and although warm was not hot. The only conclusion I can come to is that the spark is week so I think I’m going to try wiring a live straight from the battery to the coil and take it for a run to see if its possible a week signal from the ignition!

In answer to Brian, When left to cool for an hour of so it will start fine but not after 15 min

Again thank you all for your input, it’s all very much appreciated

Angus 32 said:

A miner update, a friend of mine set the point gap and adjusted the timing. The engine now has new, sparks, coil, leads, distributor cap, points and condenser, but still has the problem that when hot it will cut out if u take your foot of the gas when warm, I checked the coil and although warm was not hot. The only conclusion I can come to is that the spark is week so I think I’m going to try wiring a live straight from the battery to the coil and take it for a run to see if its possible a week signal from the ignition!

In answer to Brian, When left to cool for an hour of so it will start fine but not after 15 min

Again thank you all for your input, it’s all very much appreciated

Click to expand...

First try another coil - a known good one. If that solves the problem go buy a nice new coil. I think Bosch coils are best.

If that doesn't solve the problem, start thinking about a very LEAN mixture in the carb, caused by low fuel float level, partially blocked jet(s), slow running needle screw too far in, no air filter, that sort of stuff.

Very hot engines running lean mixtures can be a bugger to keep going and to re-start when hot.

CharlesY