Hi guys,
We have a 2a that we are having a few problems with getting to to start! It was last used early December to collect our Christmas tree and since then we haven't started him. Beginning of Feb went to take him out for a Sunday drive and he wouldn't start up, guessing he didn't fancy a drive in the cold weather!! We have tried a number of things to get him going even down to a dash of the bloody awful easy - I hate using it! Even with the easy start it didn't even want to try and fire. I have check we have sparks on all 4 plugs with a tester, the spark was seeming to vary in how strong it was so we decided to replace the coil, leads, dizzy cap, point and condenser. We went down the route of using all Lucus parts in the hope it would prove to be fairly reliable (its a landrover after all lol) The change over didn't go as smoothly as planned for a number of reasons, one being that the points that were sent were completely the wrong ones. I couldn't finish the job as I was going away for a week and now i have got back and been able to finish the job I have had a few issues. Im getting no spark at all now, tried to check everything was in the right places etc and all seems to be. The only thing I thought of was did I connect the wire from the coil to the condenser to the right terminal, I tried it on the other side then it got so hot it started to smoke so straight away I isolated the battery.
So big question is which side should the condenser be connected to the coil? Also what side does the feed go onto the coil? Its neg earth.

Many thanks for your help before I go crazy!

seriously mate ,put points /condenser in the bin and get from ebay an electronic module from simonbbc

no more points to adjust ,no more condenser breaking down, smoother idle, £30 delivered

ive had em on my last 7 classics,first thing i do

then go from there,cheers steve, ooer!!!! just seen your 9 miles away

Are you absolutely sure you have fitted the points correctly? It's possible to fit the spring onto the nylon insulator the wrong way and it shorts the system so no spark.

Changing too many things at once isn't good. Go back and start again if poss. Your engine needs a spark and fuel to start that's all!! Where did you spray the easy start? Down the carb, with a spark it should have fired. See if you have a spark at a plug, if not go back from the leads till you find where the prob is.
Is battery charged enough?
Is the fuel getting the plugs wet?

??

If the points are opening and closing and they are wired up the correct way it can only be the coil, the leads (especially the one from the coil) or the condenser. There are several new coils for sale on eBay for about £10 but a decent one will cost about £30. I would replace each thing you changed with the original one you took off but just one at a time and look for a spark after each change, start with the coil then the hot lead to the coil etc. It will probably turn out that you have more than one fault, maybe an ignition fault and a fuel fault, rare but possible.

Just a thought, but you have fitted the rotor arm haven't you?

Col

When I wrote hot lead, it should have said HT lead, bloody auto correct.
Col

OP?

Hi guys,

Sorry for the delay in replying. Good news is the landy is now back up and running I basically had a look through everything bit by bit and found I has wired the power feed to the coil on the negative side, how I did that I haven't a bloody clue but oh well. Once I moved the feed to the positive I had a good strong spark. It still wouldn't fire so took the fuel hose off the carb and gave it a pump, no fuel came out so I ordered up a new pump. Once the new one was fitted and primed it started as soon as I touched the started button. Left it over night and tried again this morning and again it fired up right away from cold where as before the first start of the day always seemed to take a little while before it fired.
Series2steve - We have many of our classic cars on electronic and also a fair few on points still. TBH this 2a doesn't usually give us any hassle at all and requires very little attention under the distributor cap (I'll regret saying that now!) We are based just our side Dover towards Folkestone.

Thanks once again for all your assistance guys, much appreciated!!

I thought hot lead was what they used to pour on attackers from the castle walls [sorry]

nice one