well, considering rainy season is upon us maybe it's not a bad idea to point out that the dizzy on a Mini has the same number of wires coming out of it as the numbers of fingers on your average rubber glove - not the cleanest look... but cut the tips off and viola... ad-hoc dizzy weatherproofing.

It is odd that this old thread was resurrected twice for use by spammers/phishermen.  It looks really weird with the phishing posts deleted!

Alanah is today's slammer.Spammed deleted... thanks moderators.

I assume you guys noticed that this is an old thread resurrected by a spammer.

I don't think any of the original posters were looking for additional information.

A quick, cheap solution to the problem (but not necessarily pretty) when I lived in England I had friends who bought rubber gloves like Playtex and used them for weatherproofing their distributor. Buy them in size Small, and poke a tiny hole in the end of each finger. One for each sparkplug wire, and one for the coil wire. If you shop around, you can even color coordinate them to your car. Anyway, it works just as good as the expensive rubber boot dizzy covers they sell, and this way you get 2 of them very cheap. Note: buy the thickest ones you can find. Name brands like Playtex are better than the generic.

I have a little over 150,000 miles on my mini. An 85 1000 E it came with the small plastic shield. I drive year round and have not had any issue with water. There is also a rubber seal that should be installed across the bonnet at the slam panel. There is another across the scuttle. Many years ago in a hard rain with Alex in a kids seat, I had been working on the car and left the shield out. We took a big splash off a large truck. She cut out and I coasted to a stop in a double turn lane on an eight-lane section. The light was just turning red. I jumped out ran across the intersection to Windys grabbing a handful of napkins with it still pouring the rain. I ran back to the car popped the bonnet and cap dried it and jumped back in. I cranked up as the light was changing and away we went. Needless to say, the shield went back in and remains. Steve (CTR) 

I use my mini as a daily driver. It's my only car. I took the big Rover shield off and put a small deflector in front of the distributor. The only problem I incur is when I wash the engine. I know I have to dry the inside of the dist cap.

You might want to look at your running engine on a moonless night or blacked out garage for traces of electricity.

Dubious post - new poster with a link in the message. Don't go there.

i use that rubber boots  on the coil and aluminum plate on the alternator, basically, the only critical part is the alternator, everything else is sealed. But honestly, putting a cardboard in the frontgrill to stop the water from entering is just funny..aaaanyway! 
There's this one guy from beyond the pond who has this insane habit of power washing the front grill of his mini, i mean hey, talking about common sense, aaanyway! 
But that's a very good point Darren. Covering the electrical parts is really a cheap insurance. thanks for the input

I use a piece of cardboard behind the grill when driving in extreme wet weather.

Thank you Bill ! I will definitely take you up on the offer of a free deflector if my Mini doesn’t already have one. Very kind of you !

Thank you too onetim ; it is great to know that things have improved on the ignition systems of Minis since the early cars. I WILL put some di-electric grease on the plug ends ( insulator part and end connector ) as well as around the caps once they are plugged back in. A can of wd-40 will accompany me with my tool kit that I am currently assembling.

Well folks, this has been a great learning thread for me. I feel I am much better prepared ( or at least I will be when the di-electric grease is applied and I am sure I have the protector/ deflector on my car). Thanks again Bill. I will let you know if I need one when I get a look at my Mini.

It’s no exaggeration for me to say I love this forum. Everyone is so helpful, and there are some laughs included along with the knowledge. Also , each day I am getting more excited about finally receiving my Mini. I certainly didn’t expect it too take this long, but I feel that the wait will be worth it in the long run. Only 10 more sleeps till Santa brings me my Mini. It will be a bit of a surprise for my family too. I have told my kin that I had found the right car so many times that they likely wouldn’t believe it even if I did tell them ! Something always went wrong, or a few times I got cold feet, so I decided to keep it to myself this time, with the exception of one of my brothers ( I’ll be using his garage ) . And my brother has agreed not to say a word about it... :-)

Thanks friends, Darren and Lupin ( my trusty cat in my avatar )

+1 for Dan, I had the same worry, but with a high quality cap and wire set, plus a little di-electric grease on the contacts, I have had no problem. Any car can be flooded of course with enough water, but then it's usually moisture under the distributor cap, and wire dryer, or WD40 would get you going again. Seems the bigger problem is cleaning up after the rain if your engine compartment is nicely detailed.

derwood. I  have about a half dozen of the defector plates in you want one for FREE..  they tend to make the minis overhead here in the south. because it cause air flow problems..   also might use plastic bag over the dissy..

Thanks for jumping in Doug. I can see why you don’t have to worry about it :-) Dan, I will have to have a look when my car arrives to see if I have this deflector plate. Being of similar year, it likely does. Thanks Dan. I suppose this old moisture problem would not be tolerated by the Japanese and thus Mini sales would not have been as great as they were back between ~ 1985 to 2000 ? I hope this doesn’t sound racist.., it’s just that Japanese cars have a general reputation for quality that would make a car that is trouble-prone in the wet unacceptable to the buying public. Worst come to worst and I don’t happen to have this deflector, I will try to fabricate something,as Doug suggests. Still, I would appreciate hearing from a few others on this topic if possible. Dan,when I think of your point that the problem was more prevalent in slushy, salty roads, this makes sense, as the salt would increase the conductance of the water. Thanks gents, Darren.

From my experience (starting with a MK I back in the 70's) most of the problems resulted with spray/splash coming directly through the grille, and almost entirely in winter with lots of salty water. I had the molded rubber boots on the coil and dizzy, but these just seemed to hold moisture in and exacerbate the problem. The grille had no shields at that time. I tried a waxy protective spray that only seemed to collect dirt and add to the problem. It worked best with no protection and good wires and cap - if moisture did get in, the heat and moving air dissipated it more quickly.

Fast forward to my current Mini, a car very close to the age of yours. On the back of the stock grille, there is a deflector plate about 8" x 8" directly in front of the dizzy. When I picked up the car in Toronto and started to drive it home, I went about a block before it started to rain. I though "OK, here it comes...". Within a mile the rain was torrential with lots of opportunity for hydroplaning. But the Mini ran without so much of a hiccup.
So I'm convinced that the right procedure is to keep things clean and clear and in good condition, and the small plate deflector is enough. I don't even carry a can of WD40.
I don't think expensive shields, rubber gloves over the dizzy or protective sprays are necessary.

I am a wimp.   I don't drive my Mini in the rain so water on the ignition problem is not an issue.  However, you can easily make a splash guard out of just about any waterproof plastic or rubber sheet.  Attach it behind the grille and in front of the distributor.

I have anouther question that I must learn about before I am regularly driving my Mini. The oft maligned ignition system of the Mini, with the high-tension circuitry located at the extreme front of the car. I’m asking because I notice these nice, albeit expensive ( for what you get ) water shields that are available for our favourite car. My question :

How many of you great folks have had to add weather protection to your Minis ignition system to be confident that a sudden downpour won’t leave you wet and cursing the Prince of Darkness ? ( Perhaps I shouldn’t blame the Prince of Darkness for this Mini foible...it was Issigonis who initially had the ignition system at the rear of the horizontal engine block but turned the engine end-for-end to keep the carburetor from icing up...perhaps Issigonis WAS the Prince of Darkness? ).

Many thanks in advance...I really am concerned about this, even with new dizzy cap and new , quality ignition wires. If I am likey to have troubles without this water protection kit, I might as well order it now. My goal is the same as everyone else’s....to have a Mini that is as dependable as my daily driver. Darren.