[g259fsg]

Good to hear the 214 GSi is back on the road. I can certainly understand the frustration with trying to identify that problem. Many years ago our 214 started to run a bit rough and the local garage suggested the rotor arm as they believed the original components had a tendency to break down. They were right, as a new part fixed the problem. Seem to remember I did the dizzy cap and HT leads also. That was sometime in the 1990s and it's not been a problem since.

However I spent nearly 10 years chasing my tail with ignition problems on a couple of my 1960s Rootes cars. They started OK but once everything got hot, it was very difficult to get them restarted, and we often had to wait an hour until everthing cooled down. My wife refused to go out in them until I'd fixed the problem - she'd had to help push them off road too many times!

I replaced most of the ignition components (rotor, dizzy cap, leads), rerouted fuel pipes and tried different types of petrol as some people suggested fuel vapourisation, fitted an electric fan in case the engine was overheating, put in a high-voltage coil. None of it made much difference to the reliability, so my wife was not impressed.

I took a scientific approach and built a variable spark-gap contraption so I could measure the HT voltage at various points. I got a big spark when things were cold, but when the engine and electrics were hot, it was feeble. I found I was losing HT in the distributor, specifically the rotor arm. Even a brand new one failed after about 30 minutes, probably the high-energy coil was making things worse. Searching the internet, I found out about the Distributor Doctor who had produced a range of red rotor arms as the modern aftermarket ones are sometimes rubbish and break down creating leakage to earth. I'm glad to say this has completely solved the problem.

Such a simple thing. If you put a new part in you expect to have eliminated that as a problem, but it's not always the case. I do keep a spare red rotor arm in the glove compartment now.

Cheers,
Hugh