The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

hi all ive had my dolly laid up in garage for the past 6 months ive only recently went out to try and start it with no joy it has a tr7 engine in it ive tried to set the points with great difficultly i am getting a spark at the points so then decided to take a plug out got a friend to turn the engine over and seem to have no spark at the plug can anyone give me any advice also been thinking of fitting electronic ignition but theres so many different ones which are the best ones
will be grateful for any advice thanxs andy

After the failure of my secondhand Newtronic I ended up fitting a Sprint dizzy with the Britpart kit along with a 45D4 dizzy cap (OHV engined cars). The reasons for the Sprint dizzy (Lucas 44D4) was that it was easier to work on, parts are easier to get for them (being compatible with the 45D4) and it gives more options for electronic ignition.

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Toledo Man

West Yorkshire Area Organiser & forum moderator
Meetings take place on the first Wednesday of the month at 8.00pm at The Old Brickworks, Wakefield Road, Drighlington, Bradford, BD11 1EA

1972 Dolomite 1850 auto (NYE 751L - Now for sale)
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I'm not sure that a spark-at-the points is a good thing. It should be very small as it should be suppressed by the ignition capacitor. Can you try a new capacitor first off ? Then check for an H.T. spark at the coil HT lead. Since it was all running 6 months ago something has changed. My 1850 still runs points and if they are set up O.K. they work fine. Electronic ignition will work really well if the rest of the system is O.K. I have 2 Newtronic systems, one on the Sprint and one on the MGB, both been there for more than 10 years with no problems. Eventually I'd like a Lumenition optronic for the 1850 I think.
HTH,
Tony.

I agree with tony. It does very much sound like the condenser. I've had it the condenser had broken down causing an effective dead short to the ground stopping the coil field from building up so not making a spark.

You need to check the voltage at the coil is getting a boost when cranking too.

You wont find it cheap to get a leccy ignition for the delco dizzy. The Sprint dizzy is easier as you can use the britpart one with a non sprint cap and rotor arm.

I'd also try a different condesnor too.

Have a look at the dolly wiki which has some good stuff on this topic.

Jonners

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Note from Admin: sadly Jon passed away in February 2018 but his humour and wealth of knowledge will be fondly remembered by all. RIP Jonners.

Excellent, no nonsense post here. Spot on.

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1978 Sandglow Dolomite 1850HL The Lolomite - MOT pass! (broken again in 55 miles though...)
It's 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses.
Hit it.

Buy Accuspark at your own risk, it won't fit the Delco distributor.

Two more of the posters from that Zen13 forum thread that I linked to elsewhere now have their refunds and are about to bite the bullet and invest in Lumenition Optronic as those fit and work.
One's for a 1974 CF, the other a Scimitar that was fitted with the 2300cc slant four. These GM engines use the same Delco distributor as the Triumph ones have.

As fitted to my 1850:

Now that's interesting, as the units tried by Zen13 members were of the type shown in the other thread and they wouldn't fit to the baseplate or the spindle.

There are clearly two types carrying the same part number and applications list but only one works. I'll post a link to this thread back over there and see whether they can get to the bottom of this.

Cheers.

hi sorry ive not answer your replies more quickly as ive been working alot i have 2 days off so going to have a tinker ill keep u posted on how i get on taking everything on board that uve all said cheers andy

What I dont see with the acuspark is how you get the trigger ring to fit on the spindle. It looks like it may fit the baspeplate in that pic though and from Ed's poste it clearly does.

If someone can tell me that I may well buy one too....

The sprint dizzie is a good solution but its a bit of a waste fitting them on an 8V engine and the advance curve isn't quite right either.

Jonners

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Note from Admin: sadly Jon passed away in February 2018 but his humour and wealth of knowledge will be fondly remembered by all. RIP Jonners.

just to let you all know ive had a few days off work and manage to find some time to tinker with the dolly i found out i didnt have the earth wire that connects from the distributor spindle to the base plate also set the points with the distributor removed which was much easier i now have a good spark. going to work on her today hopefully im making progress

Check the spark at the plug end of the HT lead as well, I had all 4 plugs fail on a car that I'd laid up for a while once and because I wasn't getting a spark at the plug electrode I assumed there wasn't one. When I eventually tested at the lead end it was big, fat and healthy! Wasted best part of a day!