Triumph Spitfire Electrical Problem
 

Neighbor of mine has a 6V Triumph Spitfire into which he place a 12V coil and battery and - what a shock - it does not run now. Primarily knowing Diesel systems I am at a bit of a loss as to what to suggest to him. What would be the likely thing(s) he fried? How should he go about troubleshooting it? We pulled one of the plugs and it is getting no spark.

If it's a 6V Spit, it's also positive ground.

Jim

You might get better responses in Open Discussion.

I'd get a 6V battery and coil, put them in observing the correct polarity and then see what works and what doesn't. It's a pretty basic electrical system... Likely failures would be the alternator diodes (it may have a generator, which would be more robust I think), voltage regulator, fuses, any bulbs that were lit up (brightly for a second or two!), blower motor, and I think that's about it. Starter would probably survive a few brief attempts.

-cough- positive earth -cough-



lol too much british cars lately.

Spitfire
 

There was never a 6 volt Triumph Spitfire.

The bane of all British cars - Lukey electrics?

Take it to an auto electrical specialist. Although simple electrics if you have put the battery in with inverse polarity you could have blown diodes in diverse areas.

Of course you could always go to this forum

http://www.triumphspitfire.com/

Ok, Pop-n-fresh, as a MGB owner I should have known better.....

On another note, since the Spit came out in the early sixties, a 6 volt system is not likely......

Jim

Moved
 

to OD for further answer.

As far as I know, none of the Spits had 6V. The 70 Mk III that I have was the last of the breed with a generator. If his is early and has a generator, I would be thinking that the voltage regulator may need a twist (yes, they were adjustable).

There's nothing really exotic about the starting system. Check the points for gap and dwell, get a new coil. He didn't let the smoke escape from the Lucas electrics, did he?

I attended a seminar on Lucas Electrics at a sports car show. The presenter said that the problem is NEVER in the harness; it is at the connectors--unless someone has cut the harness.
Unless someone has installed an aftermarket electronic ignition system, these cars are as basic as a points-ignition system can be. Careful troubleshooting will find the problem quickly. Spark at the plugs? Spark at the coil? Does manually operating the points caise a spark at the coil wire? Is there 12V going into the coil?

As usual, it would be helpful if you provide what year Spitfire. As stated earlier the electrical systems in these cars are basic and straightforward. Is this car stock or has somebody fiddled with the ignition system, e.g. sports coil, modified distributor, etc.

In my experience most of the issues I encountered were distributor related, I still have the stock distributor with points, condensor, etc. on my TR6.

Ah, Lucas -- Prince of Darkness. Pretty basic system there. As others have noted, just check all your connections. Coil OK? Points?

Actually, we probably are giving Lucas a bad rap.

The distributors on early Spitfires (maybe all of them) were AC Delco. Another dodo bird.

must stop self.... from telling.. lucas.. jokes