73 Mini Innocenti 1300 Export

[94touring]

It was a dead coil. But also a dead fuel pump?   Unless it was the quietest fuel pump ever made.  I'll have to test it and see.  

[94touring]

Spinning off from my 5 speed post in the performance section...  pretty sure I'm going to make the leap and do it on this car.  Once the current customer car is done anyway. Motivation.  I was thinking the other day I never really paid much attention to what tunnel the inno had. Originally for the year it would have been a remote tunnel shell to go with it's current remote shifter, but the car was reshelled using a new shell sometime in the 80s. Yesterday verified it is indeed a square tunnel for rod change.  Since 5 speeds are all rod change, the conversion will bolt right up.

[MiniDave]

I never could hear the fuel pump run except when in the garage with no other noise sources.....and then it was only a quiet buzz hummmmm sort of noise

[94touring]

I never could hear the fuel pump run except when in the garage with no other noise sources.....and then it was only a quiet buzz hummmmm sort of noise

I haven't gotten around to bench testing it yet. It probably works, just made 0 noise.

[94touring]

With the temps out of 100 and back into the 80s I decided to give the inno a wash and bring it downtown for the weekend. Stopped at a gas station to top it off and on shut down got a billowing of smoke coming from the dash on the left hand side. Got the dash off enough to peak at the wires, since some harness goes through that side, but couldn't find any culprit.  Kept on driving and didn't smoke again.  No clue.

[MiniDave]

It's always exciting when you own a Mini!

[94touring]

It didn't even smell smokey. But there sure was a lot coming out. A real mystery.

[MiniDave]

Did we ever shrink the wrap on the wires up under the scuttle? Maybe one slid off and shorted momentarily?

[94touring]

Today's mishap.  Another dead coil.  Happened in the parking lot so at least I was off the road.  Since this is the 2nd 1.5 ohm coil I've burnt up, I'm going to assume it needs a 3 ohm, even though minispares said the distributor was a 1.5ohm unit. Took me all of 2 minutes to diagnose and fix.  The easiest way to tell was the engine turned over quicker than usual, indicating no spark.  I had a spare  3 ohm in the boot and swapped them out in record time.

[MPlayle]

The engine turning over faster than usual is what mine did when the coil and condenser went out.

The electronic module I went to uses a 3 ohm coil as does non-ballasted points (what I originally had) so I did not have to change from the replacement coil when I first got it running again on the points.

[94touring]

Instantly died, not a slow sputter like fuel was being starved as the floats go empty. Then turned over as if all 4 plugs were removed. 

[MPlayle]

Mine was actually a combination of both: died when ran out of fuel due to vacuum lock at the tank, then while trying to restart it the coil and condenser went and it cranked fast like you describe.

I had to fix the fuel issue before finding the ignition issue.  Mine is all happy now.

[94touring]

More electrical gremlins, which might explain the dash smoke.  No fuses on the box ever blew.  Tonight on a drive turned the headlight dash switch on for driving lights and got headlights when using the column stalk. On these Innocentis there's another switch on the dash that turns on the gauge lights. Flipped the gauge light switch and nothing, but the speedo light was on regardless. Got back home and with the headlights off the gauges light up, but the speedo light stays on. In fact it stayed on with the ignition off.  We installed a quick disconnect on the negative terminal of the battery which turned off the lights once and for all.  I'll have to dig into the dash once I get time.

[94touring]

Can't catch a break this week. Another fuel pump shit the bed.  2nd one in about a year.  It works if you hit it with something for a moment or two. Happened at  the shop at least shuffling cars around. 

[94touring]

Had some time yesterday evening to dive into the dash to try and solve the dash lights not shutting off problem.  It was evident quick what the problem was. Something touched something which melted wires.  Explains the smoke.  I got to rewiring it and voila lights and no fires.  The fuel and speedo lights had never worked however. Neither were burnt up and they're wired in series to the other bulbs.  Come to find out the harness just didn't have a good connection where they crimped the wire to the female ends.  Redid that and it all works. Still need to dig into the stock water temp gauge that also doesn't work.  I might have time this afternoon to look into it.

[MiniDave]

I hate it when that happens......such a mess. I'm glad it was simple to sort out at least.

[94touring]

Fully functional water temp gauge again.  As a bonus installed an aux fan on the back of the inner wing since it tends to run hot at idle on a hot day.

[94touring]

I've been sorting out more gremlins.  One being the ignition switch wasn't making contact in the on position. You'd turn the key to on and nothing would happen. Turn it to start and the starter would spin but no power to the coil or fuel pump.  This was probably the case a long time ago when I broke down and both the coil and fuel pump were "dead".  Though I was burning up coils too for awhile. This ignition thing has been intermittent and would happen more so after sitting in the shop awhile while I'm away. Cycle the key a few times and things would come alive, visible by certain dash lights and the sound of the electric fuel pump. Since there's no replacements for 1973 Innocenti ignition switches I decided I had no choice but to dive into it.  Easy to take off the column and then after inspection saw there was a couple metal column pieces that needed to be drilled out on one end that would allow the assembly to come apart to get to the guts. They guide the sides together and allow the through bolts a channel to go through. Once apart there were 3 different contact pieces to attend to.  All 3 were very dirty.  One reminded me of points on a distributor. There were some springs on the other two, but the trickier spring goes in the center rotor piece that makes everything contact in the different key positions.  There was a tiny ball bearing that would sit in 2 different ident positions in the body and the tiny spring had to be placed on it while simultaneously going in a slot on the rotor, which then needed to be orientated just so to all go together.  That part was rather difficult. After an hour of figuring out what the bearing was even for and noting different feels to the key with it working, I was able to get it back together.  When you take something like this apart and a spring and ball bearing fall out before you can get a visual, you know it's going to be tricky. I also degreased, rinsed, and lubed the internals of the key portion. The column lock portion was sticking from 52 year old grime. Once in everything fired right up and hopefully stays that way or I've got bigger problems to find.

Paint can work bench.  The two metal pieces show before and after cleaning the face that makes contact.

[MiniDave]

Whew......I hope that sorts it once and for all! 

[94touring]

I bet I replaced the "2nd dead fuel pump" in the spring because of this. Pulled it out of the shop to work. End of the day to pull it in and no fuel pump. Quickly replaced fuel pump with spare and drove back in the shop. Thows out old fuel pump.  If I had just cycled the key a few times it probably would have fired right up.