Getting Gwen the Mini to Run.

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DanClarke

DanClarke

Well-Known Member
Full Member
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Location
Benfleet, Essex
Putting this here because I need help and it is not fair to pollute the "I would just like to say" thread with my problems.
This is "GWEN" I won her with a single £12.95 ticket in a raffle run by UK-Minis (no affiliation).
1737050165922.jpeg

She is a 1975 Morris mini with a 1275 A+ engine. Tax-Exempt, MOT-Exempt and ULEZ exempt so go do one Khan. :D
I cannot get her to run reliably at the moment. She "sometimes fires up ok, but more often just refuses to start.
The cabin "stinks" of neat petrol it fires and dies shortly thereafter and then refuses to fire up for a long time.

I am working my way through all the usual suspects.
Lack of spark, lack/excess of fuel, terrible timing set-up, failed Dizzy etc. etc.
Today I played "take the dizzy out of the loop" and could not get a reliable spark from the coil when I disconnect the LT side.
Lots of fun... but the last time I played with mini's was 1972.
 
Anything with a female name comes with trouble!
Sounds to me like your choke needs setting up...maybe even a carb rebuild, my old man used to keep buying these brutes and it was always trouble round the carb area. You could try checking on the make of the carb and find out settings etc, be a simple fix im sure, spend loads of time fixing these things up with my old man,always seemed to be dead of winter/raining :)
 
freelance said:
If you are smelling petrol, there is either a leak or trouble in the float chamber, have you remembered to put a little oil in the damper if it’s an su carburettor?
Click to expand...
Hi, yup its an SU carb. Dashpot has some oil in. But I agree it's probably a fuelling fault as well as ignition.
I am loading up the parts cannon with a new coil and a carb rebuild kit for starters. :)
 
To start with Dan, I and others know you have an SU, but the ignition side I am still not sure.

Can we get some pics of engine bay?
Also pop the top of the distributor and a pic of inside, it will be easy to tell then. if its got points it will be obvious.
A pic of the inside of the distributor cap would also tell things.
Pic of plugs too.

I reckon "they" have wound the jet to richen it up cos "they" thought it should be (with the stage 2 head, If i remember) maybe they have gone to far.
How good/clean is the air filter?

Its a pretty simple engine and should be easy to sort.

Your coil works ok (we know) maybe not tip top but it works. Set the stactic timing as per the marks.

Turn it to (BTDC) spark point on the pully number 1, make sure its the compression stroke not the exhaust stroke.
Remove that plug.
Put the plug in the lead and earth too the head.
Slacken the bolt that hold the distributor, still needs to be snug not slack.
Now I cant remember which way to turn it :oops: its been a while.
But turn it all the way anti clockwise. If the next steps produce nothing then turn it all the way clockwise and try again.
Turn on the ignition so the coil has 12v;).
Then slowly turn the distributor till you see a spark at the plug.
Stop tighten the distributor, its close enough to run.

Now if you have points and know someone who smokes roll ups there's another method:D.

You also need to check the little vac line that runs to the distributor, is connected and the vac advance is working.

While I remember the hoses missing off your inlet manifold, Pics needed. these could also affect the running and Vac advance.

Its all basic stuff and will be great fun once you get it sorted:D.

J
 
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As we know it fires and runs, even though for only a short time, we know the ignition system works, maybe not perfectly, but it works.
So, it ain't bust, don't fix it! (For now!)

So concentrate on the fuel system. Find the leak/flooding, sort it. And if you cannot easily sort it, organise a gravity fuel system just so you can move forward, in the short term.

Then concentrate on the needle valve, the float and the float level. You're getting your kit so you will be able to march on with this.
Ensure the shoulder of the needle in the piston is flush with the hole in the holder.
Then have a look at the height of the jet in relation to the bridge. You need to get it flush with the bridge then wind it down 2 turns. Then you can check the choke functions

https://www.mgexp.com/forum/mgb-and-gt-forum.1/hif-su-choke-mechanism.2373310/ good pics and diagrams here.

You can also check that the piston moves up and down freely in the cylinder by pushing it up a bit with a small screwdriver and then with a finger. It should drop back with no probs, being slowed in its movement, slightly, by the oil in the dashpot.
The jet should not be worn by the needle, lets hope you get a new one in the repair kit!

You can tune it once you have got it starting and running. But don't try to "fix" both the carb and the ignition at the same time or you will not know which change improved things, or made them worse.

Ignition is easier to set up but you cannot do that until the engine is running. Static timing with electronic ignition is harder than with points.
 
marjon said:
While we wait on pics. Please explain.



J
Click to expand...
You can do it this way:
  1. "Connect a test lamp between coil (-) and earth.
  2. Turn the engine in the normal direction of rotation until the desired timing marks line up.
  3. Loosen the distributor clamp so you can turn the distributor housing.
  4. Turn the ignition key to the RUN position and return to the distributor.
  5. Turn the distributor body COUNTERCLOCKWISE until the test lamp turns OFF.
  6. Turn the distributor another 10 to 20 degrees COUNTERCLOCKWISE.
  7. Now SLOWLY turn the distributor body CLOCKWISE... SLOWLY.
  8. STOP the instant the test lamp turns back ON.
  9. Lock the distributor down so it cannot turn and turn the ignition key to the OFF position.
With the test lamp wired between coil (-) and earth, it will turn OFF when your module is at the equivalent to "points closed" and the light will turn ON when the module is at the equivalent of "points open"."

But this involves faffing about making up or finding a test lamp etc, whereas with points ignition you don't need to bother, you simply set the timing marks, loosen the dizzy as per number 3, EDIT Remove the distributor cap, (to make it possible to see and hear the spark at the points) then carry on down to 8 where all you need to do is to look for the spark and listen for the spark "snap" at the points.
Then finish off as above. Not forgetting to put the cap back on.;)

I suppose it all depends on what you are used to doing, maybe others would find the above method easier.

Whichever method is used it'll get it running. But it already does that, some of the time!;):)
 
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Thank you so much for the input and advice.
I did find some time today to have a "dabble".
Tried to start it.... No-Joy. All pervading stink of fuel finding its way into the cab.
Pulled the poor excuse for an air filter off (awful, like a tatty sponge-sock over a very poor wire-mesh cage) branded as "RamAir".

I took the Piston Unit off to take a look at where the jet was sitting in relation to the bridge. As I expected it was wound all the way RICH with the jet way, way down, so that's not right and a recipe for bore-wash and ring destruction (oo-err).
I wound it back up to sit with the top of the jet just in line with the chamfer on the jet sleeve.
Still didn't start. G-Kids arrived from school and that was me for the day. :(
I will take a shed-load of pictures tomorrow (rain permitting) and put them on here so you can all tell me what I am doing wrong/should look at next.

It is a contactless dizzy and I cannot see any Vacuum advance plumbing anywhere. I have not checked if the vac port on the carb is blocked off either (my bad).

I do think there is something wrong with the coil as I cannot get it to spark reliably.

Thanks for you continuing interest and help for this old duffer. :D
 
DanClarke said:
Thank you so much for the input and advice.
I did find some time today to have a "dabble".
Tried to start it.... No-Joy. All pervading stink of fuel finding its way into the cab.
Pulled the poor excuse for an air filter off (awful, like a tatty sponge-sock over a very poor wire-mesh cage) branded as "RamAir".

I took the Piston Unit off to take a look at where the jet was sitting in relation to the bridge. As I expected it was wound all the way RICH with the jet way, way down, so that's not right and a recipe for bore-wash and ring destruction (oo-err).
I wound it back up to sit with the top of the jet just in line with the chamfer on the jet sleeve.
Still didn't start. G-Kids arrived from school and that was me for the day. :(
I will take a shed-load of pictures tomorrow (rain permitting) and put them on here so you can all tell me what I am doing wrong/should look at next.

It is a contactless dizzy and I cannot see any Vacuum advance plumbing anywhere. I have not checked if the vac port on the carb is blocked off either (my bad).

I do think there is something wrong with the coil as I cannot get it to spark reliably.

Thanks for you continuing interest and help for this old duffer. :D
Click to expand...
As stated elsewhere, you now need to wind the jet down 2 full turns.
Many fast/racing Minis did not bother with vac advance, so don't worry too much about it. If there is no vacuum can with a diaphragm in it on the side of the dizzy then it isn't intended to be used with vac advance.
You can read the section in Vizard about air filters. (!)
As he says a A+ engine has a physically different drive shaft for its distributor so it needs a 49 D4.
Ideally a vacuum advance helps a car drive smoothly and a bit more economically.
I tried like mad to get the vacuum advance to work on the dizzy I bought to try and improve W's Porsche Speedster replica's drive. (This was the one I built the dizzy tester for). The problem was getting decent vacuum from the carb or the manifold, not as easy as you would think. Never really managed it but then she has two twin choke, downdraught Webers on hers. Different animal entirely!.
Glad to see you are making progress.
 
Stanleysteamer said:
As stated elsewhere, you now need to wind the jet down 2 full turns.
Many fast/racing Minis did not bother with vac advance, so don't worry too much about it. If there is no vacuum can with a diaphragm in it on the side of the dizzy then it isn't intended to be used with vac advance.
You can read the section in Vizard about air filters. (!)
As he says a A+ engine has a physically different drive shaft for its distributor so it needs a 49 D4.
Ideally a vacuum advance helps a car drive smoothly and a bit more economically.
I tried like mad to get the vacuum advance to work on the dizzy I bought to try and improve W's Porsche Speedster replica's drive. (This was the one I built the dizzy tester for). The problem was getting decent vacuum from the carb or the manifold, not as easy as you would think. Never really managed it but then she has two twin choke, downdraught Webers on hers. Different animal entirely!.
Glad to see you are making progress.
Click to expand...
I think this dizzy is a "smart" one with auto advance built in. I will take pics tomorrow. :)
 
DanClarke said:
As I expected it was wound all the way RICH with the jet way, way down, so that's not right
Click to expand...

That’s a good start along with the air filter.
Stanleysteamer said:
Many fast/racing Minis did not bother with vac advance, so don't worry too much about it
Click to expand...

It’s more the fact of have the holes been plugged if it doesn’t have it, that’s the problem.

J
 
DanClarke said:
I think this dizzy is a "smart" one with auto advance built in. I will take pics tomorrow. :)
Click to expand...
All dizzys have auto advance built in!! 🤣 🤣 🤣 But in old skool that is down to two springs!! 🤣🤣🤣
But noo stuff has electronic advance which can do the opposite of springs and actually retard where necessary. :stars:
This is getting far too close to modern electrickery!
If so, then it is above my pay grade!:(
 
KISSMYAURA said:
Stick a set of SU's and trumpets, like so:
well worth it.View attachment 333426
Click to expand...
Space is always at a premium in a Mini. But tests etc have proven that other shaped ram pipe shapes are better. Luckily, forget any type of trumpet, the best, at +5.8%, is a 3/4 inch elliptical flare, according to flow bench testing. See page 59 of D Vizard, "Tuning the A series Engine"
 
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