if you tested the coil with a battery and u get spark, that rules out the coil. You say the coil gets hot, which means there is power there. the only thing that is left is the guts of the distributor. i.e. the points and condenser.

since they are new, that suggests that they're not faulty. the points and condenser control the earth side of the low voltage circuit.

if there's no spark when u lift the points, it sounds as if the points aren't breaking the ground - you have a constant earth. check evreything to do with that. make sure your condenser is correctly grounded, make sure your LT lead from the dissy to coil isn't rubbing metal anywhere.

inside the dissy, only the baseplate of the points, and mounting tag of the condenser are meant to be grounded, make sure the end of the lead coming from the condenser isn't earthed, nor is the end of the LT lead from the coil. check all your insulating washers !!

hth
Pete

Just as pete said - I was walking you through that line of thinking. If you have 12V at the lead into the didtributor but no spark at the points there is a short somewhere. As I said in an earlier post check that the "flying lead" from the condenser is not behind the insulating washer where the LT leads pases through the body of the distributor it must be "on top" of the washer.

_________________
David L


My greatest fear in life is that when I die my wife will sell my Mini and tools for the price I told her I paid for them!

the low voltage wire from the negative side of the coil was on the wrong side of the insulating washer on the quickfit points!
i knew it was something simple, cos it ran a few days ago.

thanks for all your help! it still wont start but it coughs and splutters now with a good spark!