Along with some other service items, I fitted a new set of contact breaker points to Sue's Giard less than a 1000 miles ago, correctly adjusted (IMO) and with the usual smear of grease on the distributor's cam. We did a trip from Kent to Beaulieu for a car rally at the weekend, on the return journey yesterday (we were in "convoy" with me in my '32 Austin Seven behind) Sue's car suffered a sudden and severe loss of power.

Having limped into Winchester services on the M3 I found that the points gap on the Giard was almost non-existent; furthermore, the was nowhere near enough adjustment available to get the gap out to anything sensible -I managed to increase the gap marginally by using a needle file on the points themselves. We set off again but with Sue only being able to pull 30 MPH on the slightest gradient, it was clearly not safe to drive on the motorway and we pulled over and got recovery to bring the Giard home to Kent - the recovery was courtesy of RH -Sue's insurer -thoroughly recommended on the basis of their service on this occasion -usual disclaimer applies.

The reduced points gap has either been the result of a sudden huge amount of wear (or more likely) a piece has snapped off the operating "heel" of the points that bears against the cam. I'm not sure now where I bought them, but they would only have been what was ordinarily offered by one of the specialist suppliers. Has anyone else on here suffered anything similar?

BTW, I know that the moral of this story is to carry a spare set of points -inspection of Sue's spares kit revealed amongst other bits a spare coil, a new boxed condenser, and a new rotor arm - spot the missing item!

I haven't run into your particular problem, but I did suffer a 'half-way across the junction' stoppage. Luckily I was only 50 yards from my mates drive, so I pushed the car onto his drive--then asked him if it was OK! Distributor cap off, rotor-arm off and check the points--small spark at plugs AND in the distributor. cause?---the end of the carbon 'pin' in the top of the distributor cap had broken off and (because it is electrically highly conducting), shorting out within the distributor body. Long-nosed pliers hoiked the offending bit of carbon out and with the carbon spring slightly stretched, engine burst into life and got me back home, whereupon my spare cap got fitted> I would have a word with AccuSpark (or MBG who market the Petronix system) to see if a simple (Hall effect) electronic ignition can be fitted.

Hi, when i bought "Fiona" 2 years ago as a restauration project she had'nt been started in years, so when i eventually got her going i found out the points had worn down to the point where they could'nt be adjusted anymore, so instead of buying more points,condensor etc etc i bought an electronic pick up for £35 which did away with them forever.

Thanks for the replies. I have now ordered a couple of sets of "BERU" points (along with a load of other "maintenance as usual" bits) from AG.

Looking again at the existing points it does look like a piece has snapped off the operating heel, causing the points gap to pretty much disappear, and the resulting sudden loss of power.

The BERU points were are quite a bit more expensive than the "no name" ones I fitted previously, but BERU appears to be part of the Federal Mogul organisation, so the quality should be good -fingers crossed, but whatever is in store, at least there will now be a complete set of ignition components carried in Sue's Giard.