Thread: Afraid of water

I personally dislike using WD40 around ignition systems, it attracts dirt which allows moisture to form an easier path of conduction. Start with a new set of good quality leads with tight fitting boots (Bosch are very good in that respect), polish the distributor cap with a cotton cloth, then try sprinkling water on the system after dark with the bonnet open. If there are specific faults like a cracked insulator, fix them.

Double that, my HT leads were only 4 years old, but had started to crack. Every time the exhaust would hit the water it's need therapy. Maybe the other thing to check for would be a cracked distributor cap.

just upto the axels? is the engine bay looking wet after? if its cutting out in such shallow water id be looking to the fuel pump shorting, unless the fan is spraying water then ofcoarse ht leads/dizzy cap, somewhere on here the is a guid to make a splash shield that bolts onto the waterpump that stops water getting sprayed onto the dizzy.

chers, andy

I prefer to pre spray my 82 V8 leads and electronics with Lanotec it is a natural sheep oil that will put a coat of water resistant coat on all the electronic components. The usual problem is water hits the exhaust system and turns to steam, the steam then gets into the dizzy and leads or the HT coil and stops said engine. Grease around the cap base will stop this to a degree so good luck, Other than that teach ure landy to walk on water.

cheers

I have never found RRCs to be susceptible to stopping in water if the ignition is in good nick.

I have driven in water over a metre deep in carby RRCs and 700MM or so in injected ones with a snorkel.Have even restarted on a few cylinders when stopped by a log in "The Dam" in the Nissan Trials with water up to the bonnet on the LH side and reversed out.

I seal my coil and lead ends at the dizzy with Liquid Electrical Tape which is a brush on plastic sealer. My leads and boots (Magnacore) are now 10 years old but still seal well and last July I did the OTT with many deep creeks.

If the dizzy gets condensation, my experience is that the car will still go on a few cylinders, but if the coil lead gets wet it will stop, so think about how it stopped.

The other thing is to have a good dizzy cap with less than say 100Kk on it, and scrupulously clean it inside and outside with metho. I also clean the oxidised crud of the rotor and cylinder terminals inside , but this should not be done too many times as the air gap increases.Also seal the terminals of the amplifier and the wires with either Liquid Electrical Tape or neutral cure silicne.

BUT if you neglect anything you cannot expect it to perform.
Regards Philip A

PERFORMIX LIQUID TAPE ELECTRICAL INSULATION 118G GREEN | eBay

Like this stuff? How do you get it off when you want to take off a lead?

Great tips, by the way.

Like this stuff? How do you get it off when you want to take off a lead?

Yes.
You only put it on the boot to HT wire connection , as this is where water can run in. The overlap on the boot to dizzy will prevent it going in there.
On the coil , I put it on both boot to HT wire and boot to coil and also on all the LT leads.
IMHO a lot of stalls are from water at the coil.

I tried the rubber glove thingo you can get in UK for the Dizzy, but the damn thing melted in about 2 years.
You can also seal the cap to base join at the dizzy with neutral cure silicone but I haven't done it for some time. They should be like a TB42 Patrol and have an Oring there.

BTW, be sure that some mechanic has not lost the little nylon seals for all the injector Plugs.

Regards Philip A

Yeah, I'm with you there, that all sounds about right. I hadn't thought of putting the stuff between the wire and boot, and it makes sense.

I forgot to say that someone on here mentioned a shield they made. It just went in front of the dizzy and stopped water being sprayed onto it, and apparently it did the trick.