Hello all

Ran my Albatross climax Continental today. All fine, except every so often the engine cut out completely and suddenly. No warning, no stuttering, just stopped Seemed independent of engine revs. Started again immediately and instantly each time.

Sounds electrical - perhaps a short, but also wondered about the rotor arm. Any thoughts?

Many thanks

R

Hiya, Cant remember what engine you have in her but I had a Ford Escort 1100 years ago that started to break down (stall) at the same place every day on the way to work. The car started again immediately and it went on for about 10 days before I found the problem.... turned out to be the Condenser...... Hope that helps Kgarla

Climax 1220 stage 2.

Thanks for the advice, I hadn’t thought of that. Makes sense. I have a spare and will swap it out before the next run.

Kind regards

R

Cutting out like that is 99% electrical.
Points, condenser, cheap to replace. If still a problem it could be the coil.
Double check all the ignition wiring as you could have a dodgy connection/connector if it’s been standing for a while.

Thanks. Done the condenser and points this afternoon and will test tomorrow. I have had a look at the wiring and nothing appears significantly amiss.

I do have a spare coil and that will be the next thing to try if the above doesn’t work. As I recall, standard coils are not expensive. When we bought the boat in the 1970s, it had two coils fitted, one was connected and the other was mounted next to it, presumably as a spare. I guess the current one is about 20 years old, so a new one Is probably overdue anyway.

I also wondered about the rotor arm.

Kind regards

R

Yes, check the rotor arm for cracks which allow the ht to short to Earth, the spring contact in the distributor cap and the lead from the coil to the cap.
Since it completely cuts it must be in something that is common to all cylinders rather than just one cylinder.
In motoring terms, the vast majority of roadside failures were caused by points/condenser.
Unless you are determined to retain the points, an upgrade to a good electronic ignition (don’t forget to use carbon leads) would probably be more reliable.
Re the carbon leads, these are normally used to reduce interference but electronic systems are susceptible to failure with copper leads, probably due to the higher currents. The carbon leads are higher resistance and so the peak currents are lower.
Just a couple of weeks ago, a mates engine died a few times, that was the condenser which he replaced and the engine is performing nicely.
If parts are 20 years old they are way past their best before date.....

Many thanks. So I changed the condenser and sure enough, after about 30 mins running it started cutting out again. So I changed the coil immediately, and it carried on cutting out.

That leaves cap, leads and rotor arm.

Grateful for any recommendations for electronic ignition. It isn’t the original distributor on the engine So will have to do some research. Presumably there will be a type identifier on the distributor which will help me. Does it then need setting up, retiming etc or is electronic ignition “plug and play”?

Kind regards

R

It depends, as always.
And your budget....
Various types and price ranges are available. If you know the type number for your distributor you should be able to buy a drop in part. You may need to tweek the timing but it should be close enough to start and run well.
If you have to it another distributor, you may find that the shaft turns as you insert it into the block so you have to start “off” as it were so that it’s correct when it’s inserted.
Hope this helps

Hi there, did you sort your issue?
Do tell.

Hello, ran it today.

It has new electronic ignition, new HT leads, a different coil, a new distributor cap, new rotor arm...

And guess what, it ran beautifully right up until it stopped.... and kept stopping, same as before, except this time it didn’t wait until the engine was warm.

I am out of ideas.

R