suspention /shoks

[ben waine]

hi guys,
i recently broke the shock absorber on my buggy and i have got new ones but i cant find any spring pullers to get the springs off ive tryed jacking up and removin central bolt but i cant quite get the spring off any on no were 2 get sprin pullers ..... the ones at machine mart are to big to use

ben

 

[Phaeton]

Ben if you jack up the car at the front so both wheels are off the floor. Then put axles stands or blocks of wood for safety, can you not undo the nut on the end of the shock & then pull it out from the centre?

Alan...

 

[ben waine]

thanx i have used mole grips and jacked up

now its on to the circuit breaker i replaced it a month ago but it has worn down i think due to poor timing as i new it was rong but i dont no if its cuz of bad timing do u no
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[Phaeton]

Did you replace the condenser (small silver round thing on side of distributor) if not that is the likely cause of burning out your points.

Alan...

 

[ben waine]

i have took it apart agen and the red bit on the circuit breaker has melted agen

am i suppozed to use high temp grease

 

[esdebe]

Hi Ben,

Are you talking about the points, or the rotor when you refer to the circuit breaker?

If it is the rotor, then are you using the correct coil, is it one for a mini? Is it a ballasted one, if so have you got a ballast resistor / the original ballasted wire.

If it is the points then are you setting the dwell angle correctly (adjusting the points gap) also have you (as alan suggested) also changed the condenser, it is best practise to change this when changing the points anyway (especial, if the service history is unknown)

There should be no need to use any high temp grease or any other grease under the dizzy cap.


Simon

 

[ben waine]

not quite sure what your on about

if u take off the distributer cap then if u look at the bottom of the distributer there is a red bit of plastic if ur on 76 engine that plasic has melted so its no hitting on the cam in the middle how do i stop it melting?

 

[esdebe]

Hi Ben

Do you have any idea as to what the make / model of your distributor? Is it a Lucas or a Ducellier?

Throughout the life of the A series engine, many differenent distributors were fitted, some a fully electronic, other use traditional contact points whihc open and close and these need to be correctly adjusted to have the right gap between them to stop them from be constantly closed and arcing which would also cause it to get hot and possibly melt plastic.

I'm not sure what the "red plastic bit" is that you talk of, I take it that if it keeps melting you have been replacing it, what ti the part called / part number?

All distributors will have a rotor in the centre under the cap, this has a metal strip running from the centre of it to the edge and this strip needs to be clean with no corrosion / dirt as it needs to make good contact with the relevent places on the cap.

When you replaced the contact set ( I think this is what you are calling a circuit breaker they are also know as points) you would have needed to connect a fly leed from them to a fly lead on an external condenser, or would have had a fly lead from an internal condenser that would have screwed onto the contact set, (which type you have will depend on teh make/ model of your distributor)

Either way the condenser is a small cylindrical thing, it is mounted externaly on the die nexed to the vacume advance on a Ducellier ,and it internal on a Lucas. A faulty condenser will cause the points to arc which will give of a lot of heat.

Acording the the Haynes Manual. the easiest way to test the condenser is to " remove the distributor cap, and rotate the engine until the contact points ate closed (put engine into gear and push buggy forwards / backwards to get the points to close) Switch on the ignition and seperate the points (ensure you took the car out of gear) (they points shoudl seperate as part of switching on the engine, this isn't a manual task for you to do) If this is accompanied by a strong blue flash, the condenser is faults (a weak spark is what you should see)

The most infallible test is to substitute a new condenser and check if the fault persists,

Simon