Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing +8 breakdown

I need some help please, diagnostics is not my thing, particularly sparky stuff.

Car is a 2000 3.9 +8 14CUX, out for a ride yesterday and the engine just cut out - no warning, spluttering or anything - so we ground to a halt. Engine spins over on the starter fine. Got recovered to home so now need to find the problem, I’ve had the fuel delivery pipe off at the engine end and the pump is working fine, so we have fuel as far as there, so I suspect something electrical.

I serviced the car about 1,000 miles ago and replaced at the time plugs, leads, coil, ignition module and all the relays - I’ve just swapped the ignition module again as the new one I fitted was from the prince of darkness, and pulled and refitted all connectors.

What should I be checking next please?

Check the earth connections on the amplifier, and coil are clean, I had similar experience recently and ended up replacing the spade connectors which were really dirty. It's a very easy job, given that your coil is new its likely to be the connectors on the loom.

Hi Mike,

I feel your pain - I have had a horrible season of (not) sprinting and hillclimbing this year as a result of very similar problems.

At one point I replaced the injection relays with the correct new Bosch items (0986AH0602), and one of the new relays was faulty. Whilst it allowed the car to start, the minute it got hot and the ignition was turned off, the car would then not run until everything cooled down. Talking with Techniques' Brian Gateson, he indicated that he has had many duff (new out of the box) Bosch relays, and had experienced very similar problems.

It would be worth pulling a plug lead, popping a spare plug into it, grounding it and seeing whether you are getting a spark when the engine turns over. Assuming that you have a spark at the plug, I'd suggest swapping the injection relays back for your originals, or put new ones in again, and seeing whether that works. I was guided to buy some noid lights (I got Draper ones for £15 from Demon Tweeks); basically, by removing the electrical feed at one of the injectors, and plugging in the light to the connector, you can check whether a signal is getting to the injectors or not. In my case it was clearly not, and replacing the defective relay sorted it out.

There are a lot of supportive people on TalkMorgan with a very detailed knowledge of +8 electrics of our vintage, and I'm sure that some will be along soon to proffer help. I'm definitely NOT one of those knowledgeable people, but I have learned a little going through my troubles. Those more knowledgeable folks may well suggest some simpler/more elegant analysis paths than mine.....

Good luck, and please let us know how you get on.

Dave

After a process of elimination it appears the new coil has died - I’ve put the old back on and it fired up straight away - now to look back and see where \I bought it and try and get it replaced.

Thanks for the advice given!

Mike,

Great that you got there with it.

Failure of a new coil was one of my many issues, too.....still waiting for Rimmer Bros to sort out the warranty claim.

Dave

Thanks Dave, I’ve just emailed RPI V8 about mine, let’s see…

Regards

Mike

Glad you sorted it - I was going to suggest fuel cut off switch if you had just hit a pothole.

Phil

We don’t have potholes in France

You don't drive much in the Pas de Calais area Mick??

Hi Andy

No, I stick to Bourgogne, we have roving pothole repair teams - rare for one to go unfixed for more that a week!