Bongo Fury

mikeWalsall wrote:The rotor is held on with two Phillips screws .. a strong magnetic screwdriver 'bit' is recommended ..





Oh ... I also used those blue "Made In England" guaranteed for life plug leads .

Thanks for the photos Mike. I got the 3 screw/bolts with the distributor cap but as the were none with rotor
arm thought it was probably push fit.

As it's difficult to get good leverage on the screws, I found it easier to get a decent quality screwdriver bit and then fitted it into a suitable socket on a 1/4 ratchet. Looks basically the same method as Mike shows in his photo.

If the performance has dropped off since fitting the new parts, it may be worth refitting the old parts one at a time to see what happens. I wouldn't have thought the coil pack would be at fault as it's one of the components that have not changed. As mentioned previously, a number of people have experienced problems with non-genuine HT leads, as well as other ignition parts.

Eratosthenes wrote:I have changed the plug leads, plugs and distributor cap, but failed with the rotor. I could not seem to be able to budge it at all. Does it just pull off?
However I re assembled ( with old rotor arm ) and took it for a drive. The "missing" seems to have gone but most worrying of all there just does not seem to be the power when going up hill, especially if I start driving from stop. I'm not really sure of where to go now, coil pack?. Any advice greatly appreciated.

It might be worthwhile checking the plug leads are fitted to the correct "firing order"

Did you take the photos....

"When I remove the existing leads I will photograph them.
I have found it very helpful on this forum when folk have added pictures to their replies.
So in future I am going to keep a photographic record of any work I do - others may find it helpful."

I don’t have a mobile phone / camera .. but still tend to take / post a few pics I take with a £5 digi cam from a car boot sale ..!!

The firing order is on the dizzy cap .. ( 1 .. 6 .. 2 .. 4 .. 3 .. 5 )

Thanks for the 3 replies.
I take note of all the comments.
I have some photos but will take some more, as I am going to disassemble what I have done then as Simon suggests put it back together road test and replace a piece at a time. (probably do 2/3 leads at a time)
The plug leads I purchased are numbered at each end and I did compare lead lengths old with new, and at the time felt confident that I had connected each lead correctly to the cap and plugs.
The tick over and revving with no load seemed quite smooth. After I had changed the plugs (just the plugs not leads) I thought that the engine actually seemed very responsive until I drove it.
So at the weekend I will get to work again.
I was somewhat preoccupied yesterday afternoon when carrying out the work as one of our dogs had taken a bad reaction to an anesthetic, but today she is well on the mend. Just hope that I messed up and can get it sorted.
I will report back then with some photos.
Once again thanks for all your interest.

HT leads strike again. I have 2 V6's both went the same way & after all HT related parts replaced ran nice and smooth again.
I do think that due to being mid engined the engine bay does get subjected to more higher tempratures than most engine bays would (hence scavenger fan). After switch off the residual heat rises & it is my opinion that the HT leads do get more than their far share of deteriation from heat & get cooked. I've had the odd HT lead go down on cars over the years, but found that on the Bongo you find when they do fail you almost get mass failure of most leads in a very short space of time. This was one amongst a few other reasons why I fitted an overide switch for the scavenger fan so that I could cool the engine bay down after long runs.

IF ... you take the dizzy cap of again check the spring/carbon pickup is OK and connecting to the middle of the rotor ....



Also note that the rotor as a very rough textured 'sandpaper' look about it on the end .. this is not a fault so don't try to polish it off ..!!

There is a large 'O' between the cap and the body of the dizzy to keep moister out .. I re seal this with a smear of Vaseline before screwing the cap down ..

I really appreciate all of your interest and comments.
Worked today (semi retired now) but have to take the wife's grandson back to university tomorrow. Had originally planned to go in the Bongo but will have to use her car. The only consolation is fuel will be half the cost.
Will be back on the case tomorrow afternoon all going well.

I have taken the distributor cap and leads off and compared measurements dimensions etc. I have taken more pics but will have to work out how to upload to photo bucket, I haven't used that before.
Anyway, the end of the plug lead that goes on the plug I found that all dimensions of the the internal part were identical.
However when I go to the distributor end I find it quite alarming - on the original Mazda lead I have measure the length of the conductor/connector from the internal shoulder of the rubber housing to be 23mm, and on the replacement lead this dimension is about 17.5mm. This means that the replacement connector that sits within the distributor cap is actually 5.5mm shorter.
From my reckoning the replacement lead conductor that sits within the distributor cap is only inserted about 1 - 2mm and because of the way it is made is certainly insufficient. I am not an expert in this area so I would like comments.
This will help in making a case to return them.
If I had listened to Simon then maybe I wouldn't be in this position. I reckon I have a good case for sending them back. Otherwise if I get a mazda set I will hold the record for the most expensive leads at around £275!

I am happy to say I think I have sorted the problem.
With the leads that have the straight rubber caps I have managed to ease the caps back but cannot do this with the right angled ones. I removed the distributor cap and leads. This time I fitted the leads to the cap before fixing the cap. This way I could ensure they were correctly seated. I think that trying to fit the leads with cap in situ was a failure as it seems obvious now that I couldn't have seated the leads correctly. I just thought that it would be easier to get the cap in position then bolt it up the before leads were fitted. I now know for next time and maybe others with less knowledge like myself my learn from it.
Just like to thank all who have posted.

Eratosthenes wrote:I am happy to say I think I have sorted the problem.
With the leads that have the straight rubber caps I have managed to ease the caps back but cannot do this with the right angled ones. I removed the distributor cap and leads. This time I fitted the leads to the cap before fixing the cap. This way I could ensure they were correctly seated. I think that trying to fit the leads with cap in situ was a failure as it seems obvious now that I couldn't have seated the leads correctly. I just thought that it would be easier to get the cap in position then bolt it up the before leads were fitted. I now know for next time and maybe others with less knowledge like myself my learn from it.
Just like to thank all who have posted.

As Alan Sugar would have said to you.......

I gotta tell ya, you're fired!