Hello,
I'm still having issues with getting my new car to start (bought it knowing it didn't currently start). After fully charging the battery and attempting to start it, not much happened. You can hear/see it cranking, but that's about it. The next thing we did was try push starting it - multiple attempts were made, using both 1st and 2nd gear. You can feel the gears latching and you can hear the engine trying to start, but it fails. So we changed the spark plugs, had a look at them while turning the ignition and holding the plug against the engine head. No spark was occurring. Is anyone able to point me in the direction of what else to try? I am not incredibly familiar with cars, and after a quick google search some people were talking about the distributor. Is someone able to confirm that this is the distributor for me?

We are working with a 1982 Leyland Mini 1000.
Thanks

Yep...looks like a distributor to me...

Stop trying to clutch start it...and work on why there is no spark.

Be very careful, as spark (when you find it) can bite or seriously injure if a high energy unit has been fitted...

Might be better to call a mechanic

_________________
"Show me the Mini!"

yeah, there can be various reasons why the sparks aren't getting out... can be as simple as a loose wire, or that the coil is dead, or whole bunch of more sinister things

put your location in your profile and someone near you might be able to recommend a mechanic, or come around and fiddle with it for beer credits

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

Still no luck getting it started, but have investigated further with the following:
Multimeter through each HT lead shows they are conducting
Multimeter through dissy cap points and through the lead show they are working, although not 100% of the time - can be a struggle to get current though
Scraped off aluminium oxide and tried again, not much different in most cases
Attempted to start - no luck
Took dissy cap off and tried again, rotor arm is spinning

Gave the coil a stab with my multimeter, and it showed results of upwards of 200,000 ohms resistance so the circuit is complete and I'm not sure if that would rule out issues with the coil or not. Notably, mostly the resistance was <10,000ohms and occasionally spiked when moving the needles.

Any further advice on what to check/could be the issue?

Thanks

I'm guessing you have checked for spark at the points?
Have you checked the Points Gap?
If thats all good, then its a condenser issue is my thinking.

OR

As GR and I discovered, there are new Rotors in the market that are too short....

Cheers
Aaron

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Sounds like you are in a similar boat to I was when I got my mini.

I took the easy way out and ordered: Points, Condenser, Rotor Button, Dissy Cap, Leads, Coil and Plugs. Replaced the lot and had no worries.

Most of these parts are cheap if you buy from the right place and very straight forward to replace if you haven't done them before.

and at Wakefield the other day, a fella found a rotor that was hitting the dissy cap conductors! WDF has happened to basic, accurate repeatable part sizing

_________________
"Show me the Mini!"

I bought a well known brand 45D Dizzy cap in a green box, found it had almost 1.5 radial clearance on the Dizzy body. Was hitting the rotor as said above. So I bought a noname cap off eBay and it fitted better. Still loose, but it worked.

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

I've ordered a new dissy cap from Distributor Doctor as he is apparently a reputable source for good quality distributor parts. With brass points it should eliminate the aluminium oxide buildup as an issue and if that still doesn't fix it I will probably replace the coil. I'm not sure how to tell if the rotor arm hits the dissy cap or not but I can't see or hear any sign of that happening.