Hi All
I have a slight conundrum possibly a ignition issue.

I have a S3 E Type and have owned it for over 30 years but have not done that many miles over the years ie under 2000. I fitted a Lumenition system some 20 years ago ( and finding out I was supplied with a 6 cylinder system ( after the car kept cutting out ) )I then fitted the 12 cylinder system ( I think it was just the coil )
So 2 years ago I drove the car down to Devon ( 170 miles ) other than the now remedied binding rear brake ( IRS out and full calliper rebuild ) all went well and it was a warm day. I took the car out a few months back and after say 30 mins it started to run rough and then cut out ( a repeated pattern over the years ) . Leaving the car for 20 mins allowed it to cool down and restart and I was able to drive the 2 miles back home. Yes the radiator was a bit low on water but either the ignition ( coil is overheating or the carbs are vapour locking ) but nothing has changed since I drove the car from London.

I do not have the ballast resistor fitted as the coil is clearly marked 12v is this the problem ?? if so how did I get from London to Devon ??

Vapour lock in the carbs ?? How did I get from London to Devon ??
The car starts easily and runs well until it cuts out ( gradually ) so something is cutting out on heat . Fuel pump ?? - fitted a new one just before driving to Devon as it failed ( luckily in the garage )

I have bought some temperature indicating "strips " and will use them ( on the coil and carbs but what are the control temps ?? ) but I must be missing something obvious here. My bet is the need for the ballast resistor but the coil does state "constant energy and 12v" Note the car starts perfectly ( even if left for a year or 2 ) and whilst the pattern of failure is common how did I get from London to Devon with no issues ??

If I have to reinstall the ballast resistor ( Still have it somewhere ) then thats a easy mend but any advice would be really appreciated ( then i can sort the 123 ignition on my Daimler )

Thanks

Simon

 

Replacement ignition systems often call for a specific coil and state directly if a ballast is needed. Do you have the original Lumenition paperwork?

Also, coils themselves often begin to fail after absorbing a bit of engine heat.....and return to normal operation after cooling a bit.

Cheers
DD

 

Simon,

I've moved your question from General Tech Help to E-Type forum.

Doug is likely to have pinpointed to cause but I expect others with the same model will be interested in the thread content and probably miss it in General Tech Help.

Graham

 

Problem solved

I eventually used heat indicator strips and ran the engine ( on a very hot day ) up to full temp but alas the ignition did not cut out. The only alteration I had made was to top up the header tank. I cant see this was the problem. The indicator strips on the coil and ignition unit went off the scale which ended at 70 C !. The carb indicator got up to 40.
As a precaution I moved the coil and ignition unit down to the ledge by the battery which seems to have solved the problem.

I couldn't isolate the cause of the long standing issue for sure but it seems to be ok now !

Thanks for your help though .

Simon

 

Both ballast and non ballast coils are 12V. A ballast coil is 1.5ohm vs non ballast 3.0ohm If you’ve removed the ballast make sure you are running a 3.0 ohm coil.

 

OK thanks , Ill double check .
Thanks
Simon

 

I have a 1966 E type that was hard to start when hot. After replacing coil, points, ignition wires and rebuilding carbs the problem persisted. When I pulled my plugs they were black and fouled but not by oil. The mixture was so rich it was really fouling the plugs because I have only been driving the car on Sundays short distances to church and very rarely for any distance. I leaned out the carbs with the mixture screw and purchased hot running plugs that seems to have solved the difficult hot start problems so far. Hope this helps others

 

Well despite my optimism I took the car out for a spin yesterday and the same problem cropped up after 6 miles there was a lack of throttle response a loss of power and this time was treated to a big backfire before a total loss of power.

The coil and ignitor unit were in the new ( cool ) position but to check ( after pulling over ) I pulled the ht feed to the distributor and got a good spark. So must be the distributor or arm ??
Distributor ( Lucas ) is new Ish ( 5 years 300 ( a bit of dust on the top )) the arm is old but not burnt or worn.
There has to be a catastrophic failure to earth caused by heat ( now and then ) but only after 16 minutes of driving and not an hour of idling which I tried in the past.
Im trying a logic diagram but I drove the car from London to Devon with no issues but the current failure goes back to 2011 !!

 

After the last breakdown I found a couple of new BL rotor arms on Ebay for a song and a new distributor cap even cheaper.( even though the existing Luca one was new ish ). A good look at the rotor arm seemed quite conclusive ie it was probably original and there were signs of trouble ( arcing that looked oddly like iron oxide ) inside. Suffice to say the problem seems to be solved and of course its idling a lot better !

 

Hi Graham
Thanks for the help , I have [posted a reply to my post so hope its in the right section. In the end it seems to have been the rotor arm all along !
Simon