1973 Aussie Moke In UK

[cr0we]

Hello All.

I have had my Moke for a few months now and when time permits I am setting about getting it running again. Last time that I know it was running was 2017 when it belonged to my Dad in Cyprus.

Space is tight in my garage and, much as I'd love to get the engine out to work on it, that is not really possible. I bought a new battery and connected it up, and the engine turns over fine but it wouldn't fire into life. After a quick check of the fuel hoses, I found that they were bone dry so figured that the pump wasn't working. As you all know, I am sure, space is tight down the back of the engine but eventually I managed to get the old pump out. It turned out to be a non-serviceable sealed type so I bought a replacement.

Fitting the new pump was a nightmare. I couldn't see a way of lining up the gasket, spacer, gasket, and pump against the engine block and expect that all the holes lined up to get the bolts in. So, therefore, I had to put the 4 pieces together, with the bolts in place, and then manipulate the combined unit, twisting and turning it past the obstacles and bolt it into place. This was a near impossible task.

Removing the carb helped a bit space-wise but I still did a lot of swearing, and head scratching, and taking deep breaths, and walking away and coming back to it. I couldn't hold it all together whilst moving it into place. I kept dropping the bolts and having to start again. I tried holding the bolts in place with a blob of grease on the bolt-head but it didn't work. After many attempts, I came up with a solution which involved using two lengths of bicycle spoke bent to form a sort of spring clip and finally got the damn thing installed.



After plumbing it in, I cranked the engine and was very pleased to see petrol going through the new fuel filter I had also installed.

[cr0we]

So while I had the carb off I thought I'd better give it a clean out as the engine hasn't run for 3 years. Sure enough, it was a bit gunky and the o-ring on the float chamber cover was perished and brittle. The metal tab that was attached to it confirmed that it is a HIF38.





A bit of a clean up and a couple new gaskets later, I reinstalled it and tried to fire up the motor. It still wouldn't fire up though so I started to check the other end of things - is there a spark?

There was no spark.

[cr0we]

I do have the orange workshop manual but so far very little seems to correspond with what's actually under the bonnet. But it's fairly straightforward in principle compared to modern engines. So there's a coil, a distributor, some leads and spark plugs. Before starting, I put number stickers on the 4 plug leads and the corresponding sockets in the dizzy cap and took loads of photos as I do anyway as a matter of course. I tried another rotor arm in the dizzy as it's a simple fit. It seems like at some point in time, the dizzy has been changed for an electronic one as there's no points under the cap. The new rotor didn't produce a spark.

I tried a trick which I picked up from a Morris Minor forum which went like this: remove the dizzy cap and hold it upside down with only the the centre lead connected to the coil and one plug lead connected to a loose spark plug. Clip a bulldog clip between the centre node and the connected plug node inside the dizzy cap thus making the circuit. Hold the plug against the engine block and get my neighbour to turn the engine over. The result was a big fat spark at the plug.

So the coil works. the leads work, and so does the plug. So my next thought was to try a new dizzy cap. Which model is the dizzy? After some searching, I uncovered the numbers but couldn't read the whole thing. Thanks to the miracle of instant photography and  being able, after many attempts, to get my phone into the right position, I finally got a shot of the numbers.



AUU1534     2001
42662A     2688

So it turns out that I have a Lucas 65D Dizzy normally found on a post 1980s 1300cc Austin Metro. (This leads to more confusion regarding A/A+ Series engines, timing curves, compatibility with a HIF38, etc)

So I figure that since it's not a great deal of money, I might replace the coil (I read somewhere on here that you have to have the correct coil for the 65D and I don't know if mine is correct), the dizzy cap, leads and plugs all at once and be done with it. I'll be back to report what happens.

[Steam]

You say you have a spark when testing so the coil is working as is the cap, leads and plug.  Check the rotor arm and phisically check the firing order before shelling out for new stuff.

[Terry]

Hi,

the solution to overcome the issues you had with fitting the fuel pump is to replace the two bolts with two studs in the block. Then you can slip the pump into place and do up the nuts without having to worry about starting the threads etc. I do like the solution you came up with to hold the bolts in place.

Terry

[cr0we]

Hi,

the solution to overcome the issues you had with fitting the fuel pump is to replace the two bolts with two studs in the block. Then you can slip the pump into place and do up the nuts without having to worry about starting the threads etc. I do like the solution you came up with to hold the bolts in place.

Terry

That's genius!

[cr0we]

You say you have a spark when testing so the coil is working as is the cap, leads and plug.  Check the rotor arm and phisically check the firing order before shelling out for new stuff.

How would I go about physically checking the firing order?

[Steam]

I do it by first off making sure the timing marks are approaching TDC. Car in gear, 2nd or 3rd, Then with the plugs out confirm No1 cylinder (closest to the rad) is on its compression stroke by rocking car to turn engine while feeling for compression with thumb pressed onto spark plug hole. With the dissy cap removed, the rotor arm should now be pointing to the lead on the cap that goes to the No 1 spark plug, about the 2 oclock position.
Dissy rotates anticlockwise and No3 cylinder should be next, about 10 oclock  so repeat for No3, then No4, then No2.
Also see here
https://www.mokeforum.com.au/index.php?topic=8278.msg97397#msg97397
hope this helps.