Rickoz59herald

Thanks John Normally I'd just swap caps, but my spares are 300 miles away and nobody local had one that I could borrow. I wasn't going to buy a new one if it was a simple issue. I have a 3 mile drive to work, and on a day like today why would you drive a modern car?

Variation on the theme... Dad gave me his 59 Herald recently, as he now can't get in and out of such a small car. It's had a few issues which I was working through. Rear wheel bearing, a bad habit of blowing head gaskets, seals on the convertible hood not staying put... I've been driving it to and from work over winter (on sunny-ish days) but eventually it became very hard to start then eventually it refused to start. Plenty of fuel - no spark. Poor spark out of the HT coil lead. Ok, either the coil or condenser has died. Replaced the condenser with a NOS one. Hot spark from the HT lead - great! Nothing at the plugs - not so great. Hmmm - only thing left is the distributor cap. Put a multimeter across the coil lead connector and the carbon brush - open circuit. There should be some resistance.... Carefully removed the brush and its spring as I didn’t want to stretch or damage it. The spring looked burnt, and the hole it sat in was black. After a squirt of WD40 in the hole and cleaning it out with a cotton bud I could see the metal the spring sat against. Cleaned the spring and brush and pushed it back. I used a flat punch to carefully push the brush until it actually clicked in place against the metal. I checked for continuity with the multimeter and I had a reading! I turned it over with all plug leads off and one aimed at No. 4 plug. Damn thing tried to start! Put it all back together and away she roared – well, as much as a 948cc engine can roar. It actually feels like I’ve gained a couple of HP. Moral of the story - when you have eliminated the obvious, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the problem. I guess the spark from the HT lead had to jump the gap to the brush spring and eventually created an insulator. I’ve had a brush spring break and a carbon brush crumble, but this was something new. Dad’s 82 and been mucking around with cars for most of that time and never had that problem. Live and learn... Cheers Rick

I’ve got a similar problem with my 948. Ran like a top, then became really hard to start over a week. It looks like the condenser in the distributor has failed. Might be worthwhile changing. Rick

For any doubters, here’s my 1959 948cc Herald engine. Rick

Hi Tim We’ve had head gasket issues with dads 948 Herald. Any head gaskets for the 948 are hard to find, so dad had been using the steel shim gasket. Gaskets still failed. Talking to a race engine builder, the head and block has to be dead flat. Even a 2 thou dip between cylinders can be a weak spot. If you plan to use a shim gasket, spray each side of the gasket with a copper gasket spray and leave to dry. Carefully torque the head up in three stages, and again after the engine has been run. I’ve found a copper gasket and hoping that it will fill any minor imperfections. I’ve been told that these need a light smear of grease to help them seat. Good luck Rick