but then someone sai its a mg midget??? mine is made from belgium.

 

btw heres a video of my engine ( now on youtube, after spank complain that he cantopen my link, sorry)

//youtu.be/uf43bs0Tww4

Have you checked to see that the carb jet has not hit the bulkhead and bent when the above accured?

Read this entire page

Classic Mini Wiki

Then watch this

History of the Mini

 

There will be a quiz at the end, so don't cheat.

Come on... there's no way this is your "Dream Car" and you don't even know that it's not a Honda or Toyota... It's an Austin Mini

Make (Manufacturer): Austin

Model: Mini

It's made by Austin, and it's a Mini

 

Dont' you have a title for the car?

ah thank god,  its been weeks since i bought this mini and i dont even know its make and model, until you told me,, was thinking if its a toyota, honda or what, all i know is that its an austin mini., when i was in high school i call it mini austin, and im drooling everytime i see it in the zipping in the street.  

ok ill try to find them, but my wife asked me what i like for my birthday, i said, either a 123 ignition system (its a funky name ,123?)..or a jetmotors high performance ignition system set.

hmm we'll see. if sh' ed buy it for me after she sees the price.. lol

Tell 'em it's for a MG Midget, pick a year, and see if it matches up. If they even stock it......

There's gotta be some British speciality shop around you somewhere. You might have better luck there.

If you really want a reliable distributor that you can set and be certain that it's right on, then you want to get the 123 dizzy. I bought one and installed it literally a few weeks before the bearing in my transmission went out. I removed it from the car and put it in a sealed box and it's been there for about a year now. I'm not going to be using it on my car as I'm going with a full electronic ignition with fuel injection, so it's for sale. I haven't thought to put it up on the site until now, but I will offer it to you. 

This is what I bought. For A+ with vacum advance. I'll sell if for $400obo

123 Distributor A+ W/ Vacuum Advance- Mini Cooper

first of all dan,thanks for not giving up on me. i can feel your sincerity to help. , much appreciated.

The car was running fine when i got it, i drive it maybe total of20 miles here and there,until i accidentally hit the gas and released the clutch  abruptly, the car jerked forward and run for about 30 feet then hesitated and died.  then from then on problem started. 

i was thinking the abrupt acceleration must have rendered the dizzy out of timing, but why only not working on terminal #1????,,, the cap terminals look perfect

btw, my question is , are these dizzy caps available in local auto shops like autozone? 

Robster: Back in another thread you said:

• you were not getting good spark on 1 cylinder
• you found a bad spark plug
• your distributor cap doesn't fit right and moves around - the positioning lug or notch on the dizzy body or the cap was missing (you weren't clear which)
• now you say the No. 1 port on the cap is the problem.

This all says you should fix the problem ou know about - replace the cap. Either it doesn't conduct through that one terminal or the cap is mis-shapen and the space between the rotor tip and the terminal is to great for a spark to jump, or the cap doesn't sit right to make the gap proper. Or there may be a crack or carbon trail inside the cap which grounds out the one treminal.

The answer is to get a new cap that fits your distributor.

As was suggested, a bent dizzy shaft should produce problems on all cylinders. Worn shaft bearings would prduce irregualr timing and dwell. There are two very  UN-likely other causes: the shaft bearings are worn or damaged on one side, allowing the shaft to tip away fro the No. 1 terminal. OR, the dizzy cam has worn down only on the no. 1 lobe.

You can set and check the dwell roughly with feeler guages - measured with the points tab sitting on the apex of the dizzy cam lobe. In your case repeat for all 4 lobes. But you need to be very good (and patient!) with feeler guages to get good results. Much easier with a dwell meter.

So, you need a dwell meter to tell you if the point gap is correct and working well for all cylinders. Dwell is measured on the low voltage ignition circuit, so does not involve the rotor or cap or spark plugs. It can also give you an idea of the condition of the dizzy bearings by indicating an erratic dwell. $20 to $25 investment.

Your car will run very well on a points dizzy - if you take the time to set it up properly. You should only need to make adjustments a couple of times a year, when you notice performance starting to lag.

 

If your engine is indeed a 1098, then you should remove it and sell it to Gaydon.

A+ engines never came in that size.

Robster:

In one post you asked how to know if your ignition is out of time.

With this post, you ask about an ignition sysem for sale on Ebay.

If you do not know if your ignition is timed correctly, where do you get the idea you need a whole new ignition system?

In another post, you state your car is a 1977.

The ignition system on Ebay is supposed to only work on 1981-2000 cars.

In another post, you ask about getting an automatic.

I had to put my 2 cents worth in because this post has gone out into Fantasyland (or is it Adventureland?).

Russ

 

dan, the 123 distributor costs $500+, not in my radar as for the moment.

my engine is a 1098cc , probably its the earlier models, like 80's but the car is for sure a 1977 model.

 

there are no signs that the engine was opened up and overhauled, bolts and nuts are pristine.  

as far as engin is concern, by its sound and performance, i can tell its in tip top shape, now the distributor is the one thats giving me issues, again, the # 1 port on the distributor cap is the sole problem, you mentioned about loose shaft or wear and tear of shaft, it might? but why only on #1?? if you have a wobbling shaft, the rotot will slap all over the place and will hit all 4 elements inside the cap.

now i was gonna ask you, is it bad to pull the dist shaft out of the engine? i just wanna see how the end gears look like so i can order the right shaft. 

jeg can u chime in?  dan might be busy at this moment.

 

thanks

dan, you've always been very helpful, thank you!!

my question, in relation to the topic, is it safe to pull the distributor shaft out just for the purpose of seeing the shaft end and compare them to a know 59D dist?  ill put a mark on the engine and  the shaft so i will fuse it back the right way

Robster, take it step by step:

Have you confirmed you have a 1098cc engine? Write down your engine serial number and post it, along with a full front view of the engine. It seems to be an Gold Seal A+ with a pre-Verto clutch on a rod-change transmission. A big question is whether the engine started life as a 1098 and hasn't been modified or if it was bored out had a different crank and pistons put in or the cam shaft changed.

The next thing to confirm is whether the distributor you have is right for the engine you actually have. If the engine hasn't been modified then the engine number should indicate the distributer it is suppoded to have. If the engine has been changed, then all bets are off. If the engine has a different intake or exhaust manifold from waht it was designed for, then the dizzy may not be right anyway.

Next steps are to confirn the condition of the dizzy:

• Is it stock or has it too been modified?
• If you take off the cap and rotor, then grasp the shaft, how much can you pull it in or out? How much an you wiggle it sideways. If there is play ( especally sideways), then your timing will not be consistent, whether you have points or an electronic insert.
• Is the centrifugal advance woking properly. If you grasp the plate that the pionts and condenser are mounted on, will it rotate in the opposite direction of the rotor rotation? This is the "advance". Does it spring back when you release it. There are two weights and two springs (hundreds of variations). The springs are different so don't take them out and mix them up.  The combination of weights and springs is what generates the rate of spark advance (the advance "curve").
• is the vacuum advance working properly?

To show you how far off a Mini can be, my car was built with a 998cc engine, but had a 1275 high compression transplant. When that was done, they put on the ancilliaries from the 998 - cast iron intake/exhaust manifold, a worn out HS4 carb and the worn 998 distributer. The whole exhaust was the 998 "pea-shooter" except for a centre exit twin tailpipe mufflere that actually had had a pipe nsrrowing in its inlet pipe ... major back-pressure. I replaced the exhaust sysem and manifolds to let the engine breathe and eventually got a 1.75" HIF carb. That left me with a dizzy that was probably like yours. After doing some research, I settled on the 123 electronic ignition that had curves developed specifically for the Mini by Mini experts. I say "curves" because it has 16 programmed curves that can be selected. The charts make suggestions of which curve "should" suit you engine build and sate of tune. The experets here will say aht none of teh curves may be perfect, but guys lke you and me on limted budgets (and time, equipment, tools and knowledge) can't afford to have a pro shop dial in a "perfect" curve. But the best advice in the installaton instructions is that the engine will tell you which curve it likes best. In my car. it was several selctions different from what the charts suggested. To install it, you simply put the engine at exactly top dead centre, then with the ignition on and the cap off you turn the body of teh unit until a green LED inside lights up. No timing light or dwell meter needed. Then you drive the car to see how it performs, and if you aren't happy, you change curves and test again until you are. There might be 3 curves that are close and it becomes your preference. The thing I like best about the 123 system is that it is easy to set up and below 500rpm it produces 0 (zero) advance. This makes starting a reluctant engine very easy. My engine, if it has been run that day, WILL START with the first kick of the starter. like a good kick-start motorcycle.

 

In all fairness, what you've got right now is really pretty good, providing that the dizzy shaft isn't all sloppy.  Try to spend some time surfing our host's website; really - it's in providing parts that allows us to play here.

Alright, sliding blue points; I'm pretty sure that these should work:

//www.minimania.com/part/LU243/Pertronix-Ignitor-Lucas-59d-Negative-Ground

(and I suspect that the 45D4 sliding blue points units will also work)

Check that your coil will work -

"What applications are covered with the PerTronix Flame-Thrower™ coils?

Our Flame-Thrower coils are designed specifically for compatibility with our Ignitor™. However, it may also be used with a point type system or any other system that calls for a 1.5 or 3.0-ohm coil."

So, that leaves the 3.0 Ω coil, should yours not be up to the task.  It doesn't look like you've an external ballast resistor or pink ballast wire, just the plain white wire from the fuse block and the white w/black stripe to the dizzy, so your existing coil is probably ok.  Be sure to measure it - if you need one, these will work:

//www.minimania.com/part/40501/Ignition-Coil-Pertronix-Chrome-Oil-Filled-3-Ohm

//www.minimania.com/part/40611/Ignition-Coil-Pertronix-Black-Epoxy-Filled-3-Ohm-Hi-Performance

Maybe someone who actually has one will confirm these suggestions.

 

(Edit: //www.minimania.com/Pertronix_Ignition_Mini_Cooper wow - such a bucketload of possibilities resulting from a simple search!)

 

Holy hell that clutch arm is rough! I bought my,mini with clutch issues and boy was it confusing for me as i had a,miss match of parts verto/pre verto and evetually realized the crank was damaged.

here are the pics jeg

the number looks unclear on cam but it say 41882  59D4

i got the cheap universal coil

the outer of the shaft has bumps a if somebody hammered it

no corrossion on the points as well as the cap terminals

 

its a 1977 mini special, with 1098 cc engine.  

i want to change the dist to electonic pls help

Our host also sells these...

I must confess that I'm a bit lost now.  I think you need to update us periodically as to the specifics of your car - year, engine etc...

Also, please take a studio-quality photo or 2, perhaps even 3, of your distributor (with distributor cap, without distributor cap and showing which points it has installed, which style vacuum advance unit, etc.) in order that simple folks like me who can't remember breakfast can try to steer you in the right direction.

thanks for the articles jeg, very informative ill find time to read them.

 

and thanks too jeduho1.

btw, this is what they have here in out local autozone, which do u think fits my  Lucas  59D distributor?