I've had a string of problems with the Ghia recently.  The latest one has finally got me baffled.

A bit of background - one night I left the lights on, battery went dead.  Got a jump start, drove round for a bit then the car died on me, wouldn't start.  Charged battery up overnight, wouldn't hold charge.  Replaced battery, car started fine, decided to test the generator, got no volts out of it and battery was gradually going flat, so I replaced that too... everything was running fine again.

Last night I decided to check the back brakes as they'd been a bit weak recently.  I started the car, drove it forwards a few feet so I could jack up the back.  Engine was happy.  Spent a few hours sorting out the brakes, tried to start the engine again when I'd finished to take it for a drive, but it wouldn't start.

The starter runs fine but there's no hint of combustion.  Voltage across the coil is 10.6V, but there's no spark coming out of the centre terminal (tried to get it to spark to the crankcase).  Assuming the coil was bad, bought a new one, but exactly the same thing - no spark out of the centre terminal, although there's voltage across the + and - terminals.

The original problem with the battery & generator was that the generator was overcharging, and I think it had been for some time (recently replaced the battery twice and regulator once!) However this recent problem has beaten me!

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!!!

Matt,  Take a look at your points ,rotor,condenser.  You don't have a electronic Ing. (pointless) set up do you ?
       Make sure that your dist. didn't "jump" up and out of gear. You could  spin the rotor with your hand if this was the case.
       Have someone spin the engine over while you have your meter connected to the + sideof of the coil and make sure your voltage is there.
      I have seen Ing. switches lose all voltage when in the starter mode.
     I take it you have your Gen./Reg working OK now ?
     Keep me posted on what you find.

Matt, The back and forth motion is normal. Check the wires on the points and the condencer inside the Dist. for grounding out to the body of the dist. Check rotor with your meter.

It works! Finally!!

So in the last week I've had to replace: generator, battery, coil, points

I've also had to adjust: carb, timing, back brakes

Someone remind me why we do this??!!

That little Doohickey is called the Rub Block.  Were these points Bosch ?
  You don't see those blocks break off often. Pretty rare thing to happen.
  Be sure to put some kind of lube/grease on the block when you replace the points and of course you know you will have to reset your Ing. timing I would be tempted to put the original coil back on if it was a Bosch instead of a aftermarket if that was what you did.
  Why we do this ?  Like Zen said, " What fun would it be if all you did was  drive around with no issues" .   At least you can" fix it "
  Matt, Just think, You could be trying to drive a Clapped out MG-B with a good old Lucas( The Prince of Darkness") electrical system. :lol:  :lol: