Club 80-90 Forums

So no surprise to you owners on here, but our 1981 T25 has been giving us a bit of jip, and I wonder now if this is the reason the old owner sold it.

Its a 1600 water cooled, and has basically just been cutting out randomly on a drive, it just looses its spark.

When the car comes to a stop it will not start, it just turns over and will not start (E D I T). Then some time later, 1 hour or a day it will just start again fine.

We thought we had got to the bottom of it, when we noticed the loom into the dizzy was loose, and we could provoke it stalling, then with a wiggle of the wires, it would come alive again.

I treated her to a new ignition amplifier, new (to van) amplifier to dissy and coli loom. New Coil, new main plug lead, and additional earth strap as the van sometimes seem to start slow, the fast.

Battery seems ok and gives a good turning speed, and the volt meter, if its about right on the van says its charging at just over 13 volts.

When I first bought the van we di 2 hours driving no issues, hen 20 min drive, and it just stopped, after being towed home it started the next morning, and we have been in this intermittent mode ever since.

issue is I've lost faith now and scared to drive her anywhere.

any advice on the issue, or how I can replace any of the ignition elements that would just "fix it" would really be appreciated

Car has electronic ignition too btw.

John

You say it won't turn over, do you mean the starter doesn't come on? An ignition problem won't lead to the starter not working. Conversely a faulty starter won't cause the engine to cut out. Could be a faulty ignition switch, or maybe a problem with wiring at the starter motor/battery/alternator depending on how it is wired.

Ignition switch was my first thought too but would a faulty ignition switch (The bit you put the key in and turn) cause the random cutting out of the engine?

A photo of the engine would help too as well as a fuller list of the problems

e.g. does it just die out slowly or cut out and does this happen when driving or waiting at junctions or when stuck in traffic?
When you try to restart does the starter turn the engine over.?
Do you have any blown fuses anywhere?

Tell us where you are and somebody local may pop over and check things out for you.

1600 water-cooled petrol? Not familiar. Am I missing something? Sorry if I'm being dense.

Sounds like the hall sender in the distributor is failing to me. Can you post some pics of your install and do you know the engine code?

Thanks for the info, sorry half asleep last night it does turn over, but no spark. I'm in chester.

marlinowner wrote:You say it won't turn over, do you mean the starter doesn't come on? An ignition problem won't lead to the starter not working. Conversely a faulty starter won't cause the engine to cut out. Could be a faulty ignition switch, or maybe a problem with wiring at the starter motor/battery/alternator depending on how it is wired.

sorry turns over fine.

e.g. does it just die out slowly or cut out and does this happen when driving or waiting at junctions or when stuck in traffic?
When you try to restart does the starter turn the engine over.?
Do you have any blown fuses anywhere?[/quote]

No blown fuses.
It just cuts out usually when I have been driving along, but when we have been testing it has died whilst running on the drive.
The starter turns fine.
The last time it broke down on Sunday, it was after 20 minutes running, and by the time I got towed home 20 mins later it just started again.

I have since replaced that coil. I was lead to believe this is a 1600 water cooled engine, is this not a common install? as new to campers. cheers for all the help. Don't know engine code sorry.

No, water-cooled are 1900 and above . Just a bit weird!

Just a thought: You say there is no spark. I had a lot of trouble with a neighbours van a while ago. He said there was definitely a spark. I believed him. doh!!! I poured a thimble full of petrol straight into the carb throat(after removing the air filter housing) and it fired up but then died soon after. Turned out to be a blocked jet in the carb. Maybe worth trying this. Unless of course you know 110% that there is no spark. In which case I would suspect the hall sensor in the dizzy, or maybe a loose connection somewhere. Sorry if that's a bit vague.

You have a 1.9 DG there. The most common engine in a T25.
When it stops, see if there's power to the ignition live side of the coil (lower black wire). If not it's most likely the ignition switch at fault. If there is power, but no spark then it's more likely the dizzy internal wires or hall sender.

Hi thanks again for the info.

I know there's no spark, as we have a spare spark plug that I hook up for testing ;0)

Ill check the power to the coil as suggested.

We have tried wriggling all the wires, and now it doesn't stop, as it used to before we changed the wire to the hal sensor on the dissy.