Allegro Club International

LankyTim · Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 474 Location: Stoke on Trent

Hello to everyone!

Im Tim from Stoke on Trent but originally from Birmingham. Ive recently become to proud owner of a 1500 series 2 in demin blue complete with black vynil roof. 29k from new! I picked it up cheap with very short MOT and TAX with a few problems, the worse being a popped rear crank seal. After handing over the cash I broke down and had to be recovered back home. The engine was leaking oil from every possible place and it was obvious that it needed to come out for a bit of surgery before the Agg hit the roads again. Luckily the body is in very good condition with very little rust. After a suspension pump up it even sat right too!

Meanwhile a pal and I fancied on going on one of these banger rallies and decided the allegro fitted the bill perfectly as it was seen as an unsuitable vehicle for driving huge distances in. We didnt fancy destroying the car or leaving it in some foreign land so we devised a plan to drive in the Allegro to Oslo via France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark and Sweden and catch the ferry back to Hull. Weve set the date for early October and given ourselves 10 days to complete the challenge and hopefully wel raise lots of lovely cash for our chosen charity, the Samaritans of Stoke and Newcastle!

Anyway... the original engine has been removed and replaced with a secondhand 1750cc Maxi engine complete with new rear crank oil seal. The original 1500 will be repaired and returned to its rightful place when the right time comes. May as well rack up the miles on a "donor" engine rather than knacker the original low mileage lump. Ive had the engine running although it was runnning rough. Ive replaced the original distributor with an electronic distributor from an early 1600cc maestro and now the engine wont run at all! Im normally pretty good with this kind of stuff but im completely stumped. Ive got a weak spark at the plugs but the engine just spins over and wont fire. I think its a combination of bad timing/misplaced plug leads and the coil being wired incorrectly. Anybody got any ideas??? If theres anybody in the Stoke area who fancies a crack at getting it running let me know, lots of tea/beer/cake for anyone who helps!

Heres a pic of the said Agg, I believe its known the club as a previous member owned it. As you can see its popular with my friends!

Paul-V · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 7:32 pm Post subject:

Hi Tim,

Glad to see that 'BOK' has found a good home: I remember seeing it advertised very cheap recently!

The Maestro distributor would need the matching Maestro coil to go with it, and I'm not sure, but you might need a ballast resistor in the feed to the ignition to bring the feed down to 9 volts.

You are better off sticking with the original Allegro setup: the 1500 and 1750 distributors have identical timing characteristics, so you will have two to choose from!

P@ul

LankyTim · Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 474 Location: Stoke on Trent

Id really rather stick with the maestro dizzy as it took alot of tracking down and I paid though the nose for it! Ive got the distributor, ign pack and coil and ive seen the set up in use on another allegro to great effect recently. As far as ive been told ive got all the bits I need, it just needs setting up correctly. I hate setting points!

cmcbride98 · Joined: 30 Mar 2008 Posts: 23 Location: Salford, Manchester

lol, glad to see it running, i droe the length of the country to buy this motor, only to be told that it now wouldn't start!!

keep us up to date on your progress eh Very Happy

Laurence · Joined: 17 Jul 2007 Posts: 1408 Location: Plymouth

Perhaps Paul is on the right track regarding ballasted ignition, you need a 12volt supply for electronic ignition. Maybe your oldAggro has ballasted ignition for the old CB system, easy way to find out is with a volt meter, with ignition switched on see what voltage the coil is supplied with (should be battery voltage) if it's 8/9volts then it most likley has a resistor wire fitted. It's normally a pink wire with a white stripe, just cut the wire at the ignition switch & run in a suitable length of wire to feed the coil 12volts (you could always use a temporary 12v feed to see if the car starts before doing any surgery). Also make sure that the coil primary-coil is wired up correctly ( + & - ).cheers, Laurence.

Paul-V · Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 12:15 pm Post subject:

I ran a Maestro 1.6 setup on my 1750 Equipe several years ago and it worked ok, apart from the timing characteristics being less than ideal: it had too much advance at some parts of the rev range, causing excessive pinking. After studying the characteristics of the MG Maestro 1600 distributor, I reached the conclusion that one of those would be better, however, the car was taken off the road with far more serious issues before I got the chance to try it..........

Incidentally, with the Maxi power unit, your speedometer will over-read by 35-40%.

The solution will be to swap over the plastic drive gear AND the roller gear from the mainshaft in the Allegro gearbox.

LankyTim · Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 474 Location: Stoke on Trent

LankyTim · Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 474 Location: Stoke on Trent

Paul-V · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 7:52 am Post subject:

Tim,

The speedo 'problem' is caused by the gearing of the speedo head itself: the Maxi unit runs at approx. 1400rpm at 60mph, whereas the Allegro one only needs 1000rpm.

The plastic gear is easy enough to change: the threaded bit that you screw the speedo cable on to has a hexagon at the bottom: just unscrew this and then pull it out complete with the gear. In case you get the two mixed up, the Allegro gear is red.

The roller gear inside the gearbox is a little more tricky, especially with the engine in the car, but not impossible.

Drain the oil, support the engine/gearbox on a jack and then remove the passenger's side engine mounting completely.
Remove the end cover plate from the gearbox and then lower the jack so that you can see inside: the roller is located on the end of the mainshaft approx. 2 inches inside and it is retained by a small circlip. Carefully remove the clip using circlip pliers (don't drop it in the bottom of the gearbox!) and then the roller will slide off the end of the shaft. There's not a lot of room, because the oil pump partly obscures the hole. While you are looking in there, check that the locking tab is properly located on the differential gear (pinion) nut that you will see at the end of the shaft: these have a habit of coming undone and then you lose drive!

If all this seems like too much work, you could install a rev counter instead, then use that to work out your road speed.

Best of luck

Paul
_________________
But you'd better be quick. Because the Allegro Equipe is a Limited Edition that's going to move like its looks! Vroom, Vroom!

LankyTim · Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 474 Location: Stoke on Trent

Thanks for the tips Paul, Im familiar with the gearbox end cover as I had to remove it when the engine was out as I dropped the fuel pump rod though the pump mounting hole and into the gearbox, what a faff! Got it out in the end though.

Would it be easier (for me) to install a maxi speedo? Im hoping they might be interchangable.....

Paul-V · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 5:17 pm Post subject:

The workings of the Maxi speedo should fit in the hole, but I have a feeling the dial itself might be wider. Nothing to lose by trying, though!

Paul
_________________
But you'd better be quick. Because the Allegro Equipe is a Limited Edition that's going to move like its looks! Vroom, Vroom!

LankyTim · Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 474 Location: Stoke on Trent

Good news tonight!

I retarded the ignition to death, checked the wiring and she started straight up, although had a serious misfire. A couple of leads were the wrong way round and after they were swapped the old E series ran sweet as a nut. I dont know about advance curves but it seems to go really well and starts first time. It will need a strobe light on it to tun it up properly though.

The firing order is 1-2-4-3. I thought it was meant to be 1-4-3-2? Anyhow its alive so im well happy Smile

Oh and the speedo is miiiles out!

Graham · Joined: 15 Oct 2007 Posts: 625 Location: Hereford

I can't remember for sure but I think the firing order is 1 3 4 2. Defo not 1 4 3 2 because 1 at tdc is not followed by 4 at tdc.
Your dizzy may be 180deg out??

LankyTim · Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 474 Location: Stoke on Trent

Sorry, I meant 1342, not 1432. Many cars seem to be 1342 but this allegro isnt! Im not sure how the dizzy can be 18 degrees out as the drive can only be fitted into the engine one way and the rotor arm can only be fitted one way too. It warrants further investigation I think....

alan wilson · Posted: Sun May 11, 2008 8:06 pm Post subject:

Hi Tim
The firing order IS 1-3-4-2, you`re getting the direction of rotation wrong - if you look at your 1-2-4-3 you`ll see that reversed (IE other directiion) is 1-3-4-2. Easy mistake to make, everything is correct on your car now. If you`ve had to retard the ignition massivly you must have put no 1 lead one hole out when you fitted the leads - no matter though, just get the strobe out and all should be fine
ps I`ve just fired up Autodata - direction of rotation is anti-clockwise, No.1 lead sould be in the hole nearest the engine block and towards front of the engine or top right as you look at it.

Cheers
Alan