Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Stuart2u]

This weekend I installed a new (to my car) reconditioned engine and refurbished gearbox (or is that reconditioned when its dismantled completely and all bushes, bearings, seals etc are replaced?)

Everything went according to plan until I attempted to start it up, not a splutter, nor any kind of back fire into the carb.......checked the timing against the notched TDC marker on the front pulley against the pointer on the front of the block, noting that the dizzy rotor was pointing to the No1 segment in the dizzy cap (Dizzy/cap/leads lifted from old engine) which corresponded to the already marked No 1 lead. Although I am aware that there are 2 potential TDC points 180' apart I assumed that the one which pointed to the rotor at the existing No 1 dizzy lead was the correct one. Did this multiple times, as well as changing the distributer (also with leads set up from the original engine), checking the points and condenser, checking the points and plugs were sparking, etc. I also double checked the firing order, just in case (1,3,4,2)

I then manually checked for TDC by checking for compression on No 1 cylinder to determine roughly where the pully marks were in relation to the TDC pointer.......guess what! the TDC pointer aligned but was 180' out determined by the position of the rotor which was now pointing at what turned out to be No 4 segment..

In short the rotor was pointing to No 4 lead which is 2 segments back from where it was originally on the old engine. I changed all the leads over accordingly and it fired up first time although a bit lumpy at first but a bit of tinkering with the dizzy setting got the engine to run smoothly

So, how could this happen? Is it possible to fit a front pully or dizzy drive 180' out? Or am I missing something. The old engine ran well and was removed as a running engine. The Dizzy was simply removed and stored.

Can anyone shed any light on this please.

Stuart

ps Just had a thought.....the front pully could have been incorrectly notched at some point or come off another Morris vehicle where TDC is different to the 8 series!!!!

[colwyn500]

Stuart, I too might be missing something, being an Austin rather than a Morris-man, but could it simply be that the distributor needed taking out, the drive moving round 180 and re-inserting. Everything would have been OK then. Wouldn't it?
Glad you got it going. Great feeling after that frustration.

[goneps]

Had a similarly baffling experience myself a while back when helping a friend start his Series 3 Twelve after an overhaul. With that OHV motor we established TDC on compression with both valves closed, but somehow it ended up 180° out and we resorted to swapping the leads around. Still mystified as to how it went awry.

If the distributor shaft were turned 180° as suggested by colwyn500 the rotor would no longer have been pointing at no. 1 plug lead.

Richard

[Rosco663]

Gidday fellahs,

Although this isn't referring specifically to an E Series the explanation is the same. Check out the technical article M8 Distributor Basic Setting on Bob Bryan's site. He has some really good artilces there for the Morris 8 enthusiast.

http://www.morris8-bobbryan.co.uk/articles.php

Cheers
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Rosco

[colwyn500]

Great site that Rosco found. It seems you can't put the distributor in the wrong way round if there is an offset to the drive dog. That must have been baffling

[47Jag]

If, as Stuart says the engine has been overhauled then it's most likely that the camshaft has been out which would involve removing the distributer drive. Whoever re-assembled the engine didn't refit it in the correct position.

Art

[colwyn500]

[Stuart2u]

I believe that Jag is correct......Can't really explain it any other way. I did set up the old engine....TDC on compression etc etc and dropped the spare dizzy in. The rotor pointed to the No 1 segment in the dizzy cap as it should do. When I turned the engine trough 180' to the timing marker, the rotor pointed to No 4 segment. Given that the dizzy can't go in 'the wrong way round' it had to be the dizzy drive that's been assembled incorrectly. So mystery solved.

I figure it doesn't really matter too much, as an adjustment to the timing procedure is all that is needed to sort it out.

If I ever I sell the car though, I must remember to let them know.

Thank everyone....most times I know what the answer might be, but its always re assuring to have a second opinion.

Stuart

[Rosco663]

If the high tension leads exit the cap of the DK4A perpendicular to the top of the engine it really doesn't matter at the end of the day. But if the dizzy cap has the leads exiting paralel to the top of the motor they may not reach at all

Cheers
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Rosco