Engine cut out - advice please

[Ian Cooke]

Hi All

Took the etype out yesterday for a 25 mile drive to a local auto jumble and shortly after leaving home the engine suddenly cut out completely for a second or two and then restarted itself. This happened a couple of times before I was able to pull over and lift the bonnet to see if there was anything obviously wrong. I'm guessing that it was an electrical problem as there was no splutterring and the fact that when she restarted she ran normally.

I don't know much about engines and even less about electrics but I did my best to look like I know what I was doing! Anyway, she restarted immediately and was then fine for the rest of the journey although the volt meter was showing only around 12 volts whereas it's normally around 14.

Exactly the same thing happened on the way home, started immediately from cold, ran for about a mile, cut out a couple of times and was then ok for the rest of the way home apart from low volts.

Any thoughts on what the problem could be? I'm guessing a loose connection somewhere but seems strange that the problem only seems to occur when the engine is warming up and that I don't seem to be getting a proper charge.

Thanks

Ian

[malcolm]

Perhaps check your battery earth connection first? You can then go through the electrical components and check dizzy, coil, leads etc. Or, if you don't currently have spares, change the whole lot! I had intermittent problems, so for around £100 I changed plugs, plug and HT leads, coil, dizzy cap, rotor arm and car is great. I also have a load of spare bits in the boot which will get me home if something fails. Checking at leisure, I found the plug leads were at fault so of course ditched them.

[cactusman]

If it cut out completely I'd be looking at the low tension side first. Wires to the coil. Check the wire to the points. Change the condenser just in case. HT cables to individual plugs or the plug caps may fail but losing one plug won't cause a complete shut down, just a rough running engine. If it is a series 2 car the LT feed to the coil goes via the tachometer I think (white wires) so check these too.

[Ian Cooke]

Thanks Malcolm and Julian

I've checked all the connections as you suggested and they seem ok. I'll try replacing the condenser but the HT leads and caps were new last year and I have electronic ignition.

I'm wondering if the problem might be the regulator as the volts were reading low the whole time or is this likely to be an unrelated issue?

[Peter27]

Hi Ian

Would be useful to know what type of electronic ignition is fitted as you say you will change the condenser.... If you have checked all of the connections, I would change the rotor arm (a red one from the well-known supplier) and then see if this cures it - could be a cheap fix!

[cactusman]

As Ian says get a red rotor arm. If you have electronic ignition there won't be a condenser. It may be an earth issue somewhere. Unless the voltage falls below about 10 volts the car should run .

[Jaglex]

I faced similar symptoms. They were gone after I fitted a new ignition switch.
Good luck tracing the fault.

[chrisfell]

While everyone else is concentrating on possible electrical issues I’ll just mention that fuel starvation can cause engines to cut out momentarily. This could be due to an intermittent fault with the SU fuel pump (I recall the externally mounted pump on my Dad’s mini needing to be kickstarted by rapidly switching the ignition off and on until it clicked), dirt such as rust in the fuel tank or filter, blocked breather hole in the fuel cap, small amount of water or other contaminant in the fuel.

Or the car has an infection of gremlins. They are almost impossible to find and have a nasty habit of being somewhere but sounding like they are somewhere else. Gremlins seemingly in the ignition system will have one replacing all component parts, upgrading most of them, only to find they had loosened the wire on the capacitor attached to the fuel pump.

My advice is don’t replace anything until you know (or someone you trust tells you) it is faulty.

[Ian Cooke]

Thanks all for your thoughts and advice.

As I said, I dont know much about electrics as you can probably tell from my earlier comments!

I'm not sure about what type of electronic ignition I have and all I can go on is a 2004 invoice addressed to a previous owner stating 'replacement distributor with Electronic Ignition'.

Here are a couple of pictures of what's there.





Chris - I don't think that its a fuel starvation problem as the engine cut out so quickly with no loss of power beforehand and the rev counter went immediately to zero. That said, I think you may well be right about being infected by Gremlins!

I'll try a new red rotor arm and hope that does the trick although any other thoughts would be appreciated.

Ian

[cactusman]

Looks like a pertonix type module. If the tachometer dropped to zero there was an interruption in the low tension side of the coil so either the module is failing or there is a poor earth or there is a break in the feed from the battery to the tachometer and on to the coil...or possibly a fuse is not making a good connection but the std wiring configuration has the ignition feed unfused.

[mgcjag]

Hi Ian...its a non standard distributor....probably sold as a complete electronic unit...you also need to check out your vacume advance....you dont have it connected on your distributor....the small tube on the vacume unit at about 10o/c in your distributor photo... Steve

[Ian Cooke]

Well spotted Steve. I have no idea why the vacuum advance is not connected and it probably hasn't been since the distributor was installed by a P.O. in 2004. Any idea why it wouldn't have been connected and can you advise what difference it will make if it is now connected? The engine has always run well over the four years of my ownership so I'm guessing that its not too crucial.

Back to my cut out problem, I checked over all the obvious connections again today and then took her out for drive. She started immediately and ran smoothly with no cut outs. I still think that there is a problem though as the volt meter was only showing 12v whereas previously it was always around 14v and rather bizarrely the fuel warning light came on even though the tank is over half full. More gremlins I fear!

[malcolm]

Wouldn't rely on the voltmeter for giving accurate readings. I use mine just to observe whether it's going up or down in voltage, rather than specific voltage. Mine was reading 11 volts, but a meter showed me the battery was at 12.7. But it's consistently wrong now and I can tell whether i'm on charge, discharge, or seriously down.

[Series1 Stu]

My money is on a faulty earth connection. All the other suggestions would give intermittent faults or coughing and spluttering.

Try the engine and battery earth connections first. It could be failing open circuit and then high resistance once running, hence the reduced voltage reading.

Rotor arm is never going to cause this type of fault.

Regards

[christopher storey]

If the tacho went immediately to zero and then bounced back up again as power was restored then the overwhelming likelihood is that it is an interruption/break/loose or dry joint in the white wire which connects the ignition switch to the distributor via the induction loop in the tacho . As has already been suggested, a check on the ignition switch would be a good place to start

[Ian Cooke]

A quick update on my engine cutting out and low voltage problem.

It turns out that the regulator had failed which is why the battery wasnt charging. The regulator has now been replaced and the voltmeter is back to reading 14 volts and there has been no repeat of the engine cutting out during the 50 or so miles I drove at the weekend.

We are taking her up to Bicester on Sunday which will be a 200 mile round trip so fingers crossed that we get there and back with no further problems!