I know what most of you are thinking, not another elan question, when will these machines die? not soon enough. I have a 1974 elan with a single cylinder 299 cc olympic engine in it. The engine will run until it gets hot and then it will quit and it won't start until it cools down. I have checked the compression and it is slightly higher when it is hot (by approx. 5 psi) so I don't think compression/rings are the problem. Is this a common problem with these types of engines? Does anybody have any ideas on what I should check next or how to fix the problem?

I would try changing the coil.Sometimes when a coil gets hot it will stop firing until it cools down again.

I would try changing the coil.Sometimes when a coil gets hot it will stop firing until it cools down again.
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A second for this.

When it dies, pull your spark plug, set it on the head and hook up the plug wire. Check your spark. Almost guaranteed you won't have any.

What happens is the coil is breaking down, and when cold, it has continuity, and everything works correctly, then when it gets hot, the coil has a winding that breaks continuity, and it loses spark, because of the break in the system.

Motion carried...