Ignition lights on the blink

Dear All

Firstly, many thanks for the advice on my steering issues its all sorted now.

I fired up the engine today, thats the first time on over 6 months, and once I managed to get some fuel through to the carb, she started ok.
I have noticed that I no longer get the red ignition light or the oil presure light coming on and I am sure that they both used to light up?

I now have to double check that the clutch is working correctly before I put the seat box and the floors back in, is there anything I should pay particular attention to with regards the adjustment of the clutch?

Lastly, can anyone tell me what the very narrow gauge vacuum pipe does that goes from the base of the distributer to an inlet on the base of the carb?

Many thanks

Bigant

the little pipe is yer vacuummm advance feed/source/take off/sensor

Thanks Slob

What does it do?

Cheers Bigant

it changes yer ign timing depending on injun load. if you take yer dizzy cap orf and take the pipe orf the carbatooter end. then get someone to suck on it while you watch inside yer dizzy. you'll see yer points move

Normally if the Red ignition light is on with engine running it means the battery isn't charging. If its OFF then thats good! Same goes for the other 'warning' lights!

ians3 said:

Normally if the Red ignition light is on with engine running it means the battery isn't charging. If its OFF then thats good! Same goes for the other 'warning' lights!

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The red ignition light comes on cos with the engine not running the wire is an earth and the bulb illuminates as there is power to it.

as soon as the engine fires n alternator is charging the wire becomes positive n the light goes out cos its no longer earthed.

problem is if the light blows the alternator wont charge properly if at all on many vehicles so double check your battery is at 14.5 volts ish when the engine is running just to be safe.

so its not strictly true that if its off its good

Cheers Steve

They call that the vacuum ADVANCE and RETARD pipe.

When you have been driving along at a cruising speed, the ignition timing should have ADVANCED as far as it dares to give maximum power from minimum fuel at a small throttle opening. Inside the distributor there are (two) little bob-weights which spin with the distributor spindle, and the faster it goes, the more they fly outwards, which advances the timing.

When you deck the throttle, the ignition would be far too far advanced for the very much increased air-fuel charge (much higher actual compression now) and unless action was taken, the ignition would take place so early that it could burst the crowns of the pistons.

So, they connect that little pipe into wall of the carb at the exact spot near where the butterfly valve sits when it is closed, in such a way that when you are cruising there is some suck on the pipe, and this keeps the ignition advanced.

When you deck the throttle the suck on the pipe stops, and the mechanism instantly springs back so that it RETARDS the ignition - possibly by as much as 10 or even 20 degrees, thus saving your pistons from detonation damage.

If you don't connect the pipe your whole ignition timing setup will go down the pan.

CharlesY

just a little thought but my landy was off the road for 14 years before i bought it i now have it all running but a lot of the connections are a bit dry and tempermental i have cleaned most of them and give them a little squirt as ive gone through it but the other day my gauges on the dash stopped working it turned out it was bad contacts in the fuses under the steering column a quick wiggle on each fuse and the dash came back to life

with the series electrical connections, they are prone to corrosion - everytime you have to look at any connection, smear a thin film of vaseline around the contacts, ensures good electrical connectivity, reduces corrosion problems to bugger all and waterproofs them a bit.

Its good practice in any vehicle.