in his earlier posts he said  "there was no spark".  but you're right we cannot discount the possibility of fuel delivery issue.

as dan once told me, invest on timing gun and dwell meter and make your "mini" life easier.

The Pertronix module for the 25D is OK, just like for the later dizzys.  As mentioned above, the later Ignitor-II module doesn't have the problem with leaving the ignition on with the engine not running.  However, it cannot be static timed either.  That's a trivial point but something to consider when making your choice.

I would delay switching to Pertronix.  If you cannot sort out the source of the ignition problem with points, you may find it still won't run when you install the electronic ignition.  If it won't run after the conversion you will have an added level of troubleshooting (is the Ignitor good, did I install it right? )

I know this is beating a dead horse but are you sure it is an ignition issue?  As a quick screening test, tip a thimble of gas down the carb throat and see if the engine starts.  If it fires and runs briefly after the thimble of gas your car has a fuel delivery issue and not an igntion problem.

park your mini inside an enclosed garage,turn off the stupet garage light, open the gadam hood and crank it, or have someone crank it while you observe the distributor thang, if you notice some electrical current darting around the coil wire etc, your wire must be worn and or the dizzy cap cracked, electrical impulses are leaking.

check the spark plug gap as well., and the timing. 

 

wait a minute, are you the same guy who claims he has a chirping bird  inside his bonnet and almost turned his mini upside down to find the avian, still can't find the "bird"???..and  it got 3-4 pages and still got no solution? wow

Definitely not the coil. It does have the proper coil but I've tried a few of the others I have with the same results.

There were a bad batch of rotors out there a few years back and the condensers from the UK lately are junk out of the box. I have points in one Mini and have three failed condensers but as the last one failed on a trip and the new in the box one i had extra was dead i resorted to using a chevy 6 cylinder condenser from the local parts store mounted to the outside of the dizzy (too large) which works great so far. I want to convert it to electronic but would rather use the factory 90's one. The petronix 2 is the better one to use as it does not ruin the module if the ignition is left on, they are very reliable but i would still keep spare points and condenser in the boot though.

Be careful which coil you use - a true 12v or one for a ballasted system.

If you put a ballasted coil on a non-ballast car, the coil will take twice as much current and fry the points.

Also - old coils just go intermittant sometimes.

if you have a timing gun, attach the clamp to the wire that goes to the coil and determine if it's giving electrical current.

check the ground attachment, remove,sand it really good.

take a bit of emphasis on the dwell angle, points might not be touching together to make a stupet spark. 

and yes, rotor MIGHT be so worn out that it is getting the distance too far from the distributor cap terminals, spark is not reaching them. know what i mean?

i tellya, that stupeid bolt that is holding the points to the distibrutor gets loose due to vibration, secure the bolt tightly., been there done that, i went as far as putting too much oil on the little felt pad attached to the pionts thinking that it's getting to much friction without the oil, (ignorant me, but those were the effin days), then i also went as far as straightening the carb needle because apparently someone intelligent told me that the needle was bent due to vibration.(that just caused him to temporarily give up on the forum due to embarrassment,aaanyway,i won't dwell on that too much and i'd rather not mention his name out of respect.

anyway, after you install your new condenser, get back to us, we are very interested to know the development.

 

 

Hadn't thought of the rotor being bad. This one looks barely used as is. Both it and the cap have no wear and must have been replaced shortly before it was parked. I did check the brush the other day and it's moving free. New condenser on the way. Also, curious about this petronix electronic conversion for a 25d. Anyone have experience with it?

Assuming the problem is inside the dizzy, look at the simple and cheap things.  Check the spring loaded carbon brush in the center of the cap.  Make sure it is there and free to move.  Over the years there have been some bad rotors produced that can short to ground... try another rotor if you have one.  Install a new condenser if you haven't already done so.  If you have a tachometer, temporarily unplug its sense wire from the coil.

 

Still something screwy going on. Next day it wouldn't fire up, no spark again. Double checked the points and they were still set correctly. Put the cap back on after verifying everything was still tight. Fired up and ran good. Decided not to drive it. This morning tried to fire it up, and dead again. Not sure what else to check inside this dizzy aside from chunking it in the trash.

The reason might be was that the screw that's holding the points to the distributor went loose due to vibration , well i have a solution for that, in my garage i never ran out of rubber silicon (yes, the one used to assemble aquariums) after i tighten a bolt or screw i always put one drop of silicon around it to prevent any movement caused by vibration. you can buy silicon from dollar store for 99cents ,can't beat that. 

one thing good about silicon sealant is that if you want to remove it,it's easy, it comes right off.

make it a habbit !!! just ignore it's strong stinky vinegar smell.

Well problem solved, somewhat simple actually. I did check that ground wire and while it was looser than I expected, it wasn't the issue. I put the car in gear and rolled it to see if the points were in fact opening, and they were not. The screw was rather tight so I was slightly surprised. I was really thrown off by the 2nd coil firing the car up like everything was fine. At any rate, I have a few spare condensers on the way and coils on tap for next time. It's been awhile since I've had to fiddle with points so I will rack this up as a good refresher course. There were two black wires on the coil that were going to nothing anyways so I was able to eliminate those in all this.

i almost bought a $110 worth of ignition before when "somebody" adviced me that the problem on my car was the ignition, good thing my inquisitive mind dictated me to dig down more on my problem and i found out that it was the piece of foil that i stuck to the firewall that is touching the ignition wire thing causing a sudden shortage that causes the car to stall. With God's grace and mercy up to this very moment my ignition is still 100% operational. 

What Dan said. I use to carry the ground wire he mentioned as a spare in my Mini emergency kit. They seem to get brittle from the heat in the engine bay, (especially if they are the original ones) If that's not it, I would suspect the ignition. That can cause the Mini to die instantly out of the blue. Play with your ignition key when it won't start, and see if you can detect a short. Old ignitions on classic Mini's are notorious for going bad.           Mini Estate

oh wow, that's an ancient distributor rig, you not thinking of switching to electronic? and make that puppy your spare.

Talking about this little guy right?

Check the tiny ground wire that goes from the plate the condenser mounts on to body of the distributor. It probably connects via the condenser monting screw. The other end is screwed to the dizzy body. If this last screw works loose, you'll get intermittent ignition, cutting out completely. Once the engine cools down, you may have a complete circuit until it warms up and shakes loose again. The ground screw to the dizzy body is so small it is easy to overlook.

Same dilema happened to me, @ first i suspect it was the fuel system shets, but nope, it was the stupet condenser., replaced the condenser with my old still working laying around condenser and the car started right up without hesitation and hiccups.., if you order condenser online get 2, and have one for spare. these chinese condensers only lasts few days my goodness!, since your mini sat for years, take time to clean the distributor system, clean contact points and oil whatever needs to be lubricated. underneath the contact point assembly is the mechanical advance, it needs a little lubrication as well, there are 2 stupet little spring inside,check it's integrity,if it's loose or broken, it wil cause your timing to swing and dance. basically lubricate all moving parts except the contact point(of course) there may have been a lot of crap inside it, since it sat for years. how dare you not drive it for a long time?? lol! kidding! oh i see, it was the previous owners fault.lol

Have a true 74 998cc mini. It sat for years, I acquired it, got it running and it's been doing great till last night. Driving home it shut off instantly as I was coming to a stop. Pull over, check fuel, check ignition. No spark. Get my other car, drive across town and get a coil from my other mini. Plug it in and it fires right up. A few minutes later it dies. Has a lumpy idle for a few moments before it totally shuts off. Coil is excessively hot. Thought maybe it didn't like a later year coil. Today grabbed another coil, actually have about 4 old ones sitting around and a new one I grabbed from the autozone for the heck of it. Nothing got it to fire up. Took the original coil and the coil I borrowed from the other mini and they both work on the other mini. I thought surely I fried both of them but apparently not. So, opened up the dizzy, looks like a 25d. The cap, rotor, and points all look practically brand new. No wear or corrosion, I was actually surprised at their condition. The condenser I would assume is new, but I'm wondering if that's my culprit. I don't have any to swap out and not sure if there is something locally that I can use as an alternate. I'm confused at why when I put in the 2nd coil it fired up and ran great, albeit for only a few minutes. What else can I be looking for here?