Battery connected up wrong way round!

Silly who me? Water down a duck's back Chris Whealan, you have been cyber stalking me for years...

>> Then "CAT 1"

>> Unfortunately if a car that is not in the book somehow passes the >> "BET" test the tester may not be aware that the car has a "non CAT" >> test and thus incorrectly fail it for not having a CAT fitted. >

No such thing.

1275cc Mini Cooper changed to TBi with electronic ignition in October '91. May '92 the 998cc engine was dropped, from then on all were 1275cc. Non Cooper 1275cc with HIF carb in May '92, all had electronic ignition and changed to SPi August 1994. Electronic ignition distributors have caps held on by 2 screws. When removed it exposes a rotor arm and a smooth cover plate. May look like points but isn't. Aug 1996 they brought out the Mk VII, they all had twin injectors - MPi. They all have distributor-less ignition.

The SU wiki says SU production was stopped by Rover group in 1993. They must have had a few on a shelf somewhere for the HIF carbs to last though to Aug '94. Doesn't mean some HIF carb engined ones weren't parked in a field somewhere but they would have all have had to been registered by Aug '95 (or they have to pass the "CAT 1" test).

Aug '92 to Dec '93 Nissan had quite few (1000's) of CA18DET on a shelf somewhere. Though back then the date an engine was "made" was the day the crank was hammered out or cast. The raw forging / casting could be left in a shed or even bagged and put in cages outside until a batch of engines was wanted.

Surely they lost points and condenser WAAAAAY before then - a decade or so? Not even BL could have been THAT far behind the game. Could they?

They where still fitting mechanical regulators to Triumph Acclaims in 1982

And presumably a dynamo?

No, they'd progressed to alternators.

With a mechanical regulator? Never seen that. I've seen a dynamo with an electronic regulator, but not the other way round.

Yeh, not exactly unusual through the '70s. 2cvs had mechanical external VRs right up until the end of production in '90.

But I really don't think we can hold the Triumph Acclaim up as an example of BL engineering, unless we're discussing the merits of double-sided tape, sikaflex or pins to hold a badge on.

No, it doesn't.

Yep. My Renault 16 of ~1972 vintage had that. Great fun when the regulator stuck on and the world was turned brilliant whitish blue as the headlamp filaments burned out.

Don't be daft, this is Usenet, man.

Have you been on holiday?

Dave pointed out the difference between perm magnet model train motor and series field coil starter motor a long time ago.