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Tips
Tips

No spark!

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dphilippo

Senior Member
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The other day my BJ8 failed to start when I tried to go home after work. It wouldn't turn over at all. We did some trouble shooting and determined that the starter motor didn't appear to be working. We removed it, cleaned the brushes and commutator and then bench tested it. It worked! We put it back in and it spins like a champ.

Unfortunately the car is not starting. I checked the plug wires near the block and I don't appear to be getting any spark. In addition, the coil is getting hot a blazes (not sure if that is normal or not). Does anyone have any troubleshooting suggestions or ideas about what might be wrong?

I read in the workshop manual that I can rotate the distributor until the points are open and then check the voltage on the starter, but the distributor is a black box to me and I'm not sure how to tell if the points are open. Any suggestions at all would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Drew
 
OK, so you can take the starter out, bench tested it and put it back in, but you're not inclined to take the distributor cap off?

You turn the key and what happens?
The engine turns over, but the engine doesn't start?
The engine won't turn over?
Is there gas in the tank?
Is the fuel pump working?
Are you getting gas at the carbs?
 
There is a section in the maunual specific to trouble shooting the no spark problem. If you have a volt meter, follow the directions, I skipped the first few tests, purely because it was under the dash board but picked up on the tests in the engine bay. The distributer is not a black art, with the cap off, there is a central spindle with an arm on the top - this is the rotar arm and lifts off, it can only fit back in one position due to the key way. Once off you can see the points below and the operating cam, its all in the book. There are a number of things that could be wrong - the coil does warm up but should not be red hot, the points could be shot, open up the gap and try and see the surfaces, they should be flat, if one is built up into a point or greatly pitted, the points should be changed, the condensor in the dizzy could be down, the test determins that, the tests are designed to chase around the ignition circuit finally ending up at the coil.
 
Hey Drew,

Considering you have no spark at the plugs... a simple thing:
Check your battery cut-off switch. You will see a small gage wire attached to a terminal on the switch....the only one there. This wire is a ground wire for the Ignition Coil. When the cut-off switch is off, the coil is grounded preventing the coil from getting power. You could be having a short in the cut-off switch.

Disconnect the wire at the cut-off switch and cap it. Try to start the car. If it starts..great! If not, I tried.
 
The coil should not be hot. Check it for proper resistances for the primary and secondary coils and for shorts in either these coils, coil to coil or to the case.
 
Guys,
Thanks for the tips but this is a fairly old thread you've responded to. Happily the Healey has been back on the road for a couple of thousand miles since that post (we go a lot of places together). For the sake of full disclosure, I finally read the shop manuals thoroughly, ran through the full ignition step by step instructions and then manned up and dug into the distributor. Turns out I had no spark because the points were no longer opening. I swapped them out and set the appropriate gap and off we went. I then got really brave and set the distributor advance. All has been running great ever since.

I know that a lot of these are simple things for many of the folks here, but for me a lot of this is new. If it's in or on a house I can fix or build just about anything, but this is the first car I've ever worked on beyond an occasional oil change. That said, in the past year I've done this, fixed a sluggish overdrive, and several other things I wouldn't have tried if it weren't for the help and expertise that I find here and on the Healey e-mail list. If nothing else, it's comforting to know that you are all out there with answers ready.

Thanks,
Drew
65BJ8
 
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