Electrical problem

Put a ten amp fuse in-line with positive side of coil, if it blows I’d suggest looking at the alternator, it could well be overcharging
I know this sounds implausible but it used to happen on Stradas...same engine

Thanks, I will have a go tomorrow

Try measuring the points gap to confirm that the dwell angle reading is correct...

Thanks Martin, I have checked several times and the dwell is spot on

Thanks Nina I tried this today, I was quite hopeful but unfortunately the same thing happened and the fuse didn’t blow.
Incidentally the battery shows 13v on tickover.
Also when I disconnected the earth strap from gearbox to clean the dash clock reset itself ?

Check battery to body earth and can you go get battery ‘drop-tested’?
If the battery has bent plates (or bend wehn warm/charging) they can short out
Other than actually checking myself, systematically, I don’t know what to suggest
Whereabouts are you and do you know a good sparky?
Ps...t’aint nina it’s my husband supplying the details, he’s an ex fiat/lancia/alfa sparky

So today I have cleaned up earth strap from battery to body, I wasn’t able to drop test the battery so I have put one in from another car.
The battery that was in there was 47ah, I have now put in a 53ah but looking at the spec it should be 60ah.
The symptoms remain unfortunately.
Would the ah of the battery be anything to do with the problem.
Ps I live near Plymouth

Smaller battery is just trying to work harder, if the battery leads were getting hot also, then it’s definately working too hard (on starter) or a short
Plymouth’s too much of a stretch from N.yorkshire to have a looksee

Ha ha yes it is a bit far, I think I have done as much as I can now, but I have made contact with some one who will come and sort it out next week so i will let you know outcome
Cheers
Mark

Hi Mark
Did you manage to fix it??? i'm intrigued...

Jeremy, it just so happens I have renewed the voltage regulator today after my local garage said it was that, however they didn’t know where it was
It’s part of the module on the alternator btw
Guess what still the same coil gets hot looses spark and engine dies, won’t start until coil cools down
Cheers
Mark

Did you find a solution?
I have one of the "dry" coils from Eurosport fitted along with std points and am well pleased with it.

Still no solution Andrew, did you have a problem with hot coil before you changed to dry type
Cheers
Mark

I’ve got to say:

‘Always presume the other guys an idiot’
Basically, the only way to be sure is to check yourself, right from the beginning, you/they may have missed something
Check all connections are the right way round
Check they are secure and corrosion/muck free...including earths
Check feeds to ensure you’re getting right power....including earths
Check for shorts
Then recheck them
The only time I had a similar fault, as said before, was a battery that was internally shorting when hot and an early panda 4x4 956 engine, where the low tension side was shorting on the clamp to the ballast resistor

I did, tried all sorts of things, even started building a copper heat-sink for the coil.
The dry coil worked well but then I had an issue where the car would run for 30/40 mins then die - replacing the rotor arm solved the problem but after burning out the 3rd one I went back to basics and found the new and supposedly correctly gapped plugs were too open.
No problems since correcting the gaps.