Spitfire Intermittently Stops Firing

Simon Fraser · May 13, 2025

Recently I believe my and my father's '76 Spitfire has been intermittently stopping firing, and we haven't been able to figure out why.

At first it would be very brief, almost like a hiccup. I would lose all power and my revs would drop to zero for less than a second. But the more I drove it, the longer the engine would cut out. One time it cut out for about 2 full seconds and then backfired so loud I thought the engine exploded.

Has anyone had any experience with this issue or have any ideas on how to fix it?

We've put in an all new wiring harness, the last owner put in a new spark distributer, and all of the spark plugs are clean and adjusted properly. I'm not sure what could possibly be going wrong electrically for this to be happening.

joe mc donald · May 16, 2025

Simon Fraser said: ↑

Recently I believe my and my father's '76 Spitfire has been intermittently stopping firing, and we haven't been able to figure out why.

At first it would be very brief, almost like a hiccup. I would lose all power and my revs would drop to zero for less than a second. But the more I drove it, the longer the engine would cut out. One time it cut out for about 2 full seconds and then backfired so loud I thought the engine exploded.

Has anyone had any experience with this issue or have any ideas on how to fix it?

We've put in an all new wiring harness, the last owner put in a new spark distributer, and all of the spark plugs are clean and adjusted properly. I'm not sure what could possibly be going wrong electrically for this to be happening.
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@Simon Fraser Think you joined the wrong forum. Unless you are getting ride of the car for a Triumph Motorcycle. But wish you lots of luck mate.