Distributor rebuilders or parts for?

[Gilbert '71 T]

There's a slight bit of side to side play in mine on the cam which I'm guessing is causing my slightly unsteady dwell angle.

Spent the afternoon with Joe friday (those at the fairmile will know him) for a dwell angle/points/timing play about on my car and we discovered my points were held in place by a blimmin wood screw of all things the dwell angle was ballpark but not at all steady at idle. tapped a new thread in the hole and put a new screw in which gave a more steady reading but the side to side movement must be whats causing it to move about still, which isnt much btw, something like 0.3 degrees, but it would be nice to tighten things up.

Anyone know a good distributor rebuilder in the london area? or even point me in the direction for distributor parts and I'll happily do it myself

Thanks all

[Barry]

Darren: if you fit an electronic ignition module instead of the points, a little play becomes irrelevent as the spark is triggered by a sort of disk (either with 'blades' or a magnet) mounted on the dizzy shaft: obviously this simply then triggers either an optic or magnetic sensor, rather than having any physical contact.

Under these circumstances it might be worth considering, perhaps Tim has some ideas / opinions? If possible it would probably be chearper than a dizzy recon, plus you get rid of the points .

[Dyno Soar]

[yoda voice] To Barry-Wan you listen young Jedi [/yoda voice]



Bloody dizzy's

[Gilbert '71 T]

[yoda voice] To Barry-Wan you listen young Jedi [/yoda voice]



Bloody dizzy's

Thanks Barry, yes that is certainly an option I’d considered, but wouldn’t the play in my dizzy shaft be an indication of a worn distributor that could get worse, I guess I’m just being a wee bit fussy , I just know I’d be happier in the knowledge that my dizzy is nice and tight with no play. I’ve read varying reports of these optical pickup things on Pelican as well, EarlySMan who is the guru on these things doesn’t recommend them . or at least suggests keeping a set of points in the glovey box just incase.

Just one of a few things I’d like sorted before my tour de france. I’ve also developed a cold start problem, which I’m sure can only be K-jet (CIS) related, I'm betting is it’s either the accumulator not holding pressure, co mixture needs tweeking or warm up regulator related, I had the rest of the K-Jet stuff tested or replaced during the rebuild. A gas analyser and vacuum/fuel tester is on the shopping list for some CIS fun

[fourteener]

What's the consensus on which unit to go for? I know there is a pertronix module for a 6cylinder but haven't found anyone selling them. what's that UK made module, luminition? The fact it's English is making me think Lucas -and that makes me think of smoke escaping from the wires

[Barry]

Ah yes, perhaps we should have done a group buy of the 'Lucas Wire Smoke Replacement Kit' that cropped up on E-Bay last year just in case ....

Darren: I only thought of this (and imagined you had as well TBH) because 'they' say that one of the advantages of going electronic is to get round dizzy wear problems. I assume the dizzy shaft only develops side-play because of the side loading of the contact breaker points spring, which is of course pretty strong. Once electronic alternative installed, a degree of play can't really affect things, unless it was bad enough to allow the rotor arm to foul the cap ( ), or interfere with any mechanical advance/retard where fitted.

I don't know which one is best, but do seem to remember Neil Bainbridge having a kit made, which I'm sure he said he uses on his racing cars? Can't remember what his company is called now (it's ages since I've seen him), but Mike would be able to tell you.

[Lightweight_911]

Neil's outfit is BS Motorsport:

http://www.bsmotorsport.co.uk/

[Barry]

Oh yes, I remember now, doh

[impmad2000]

perhaps Tim has some ideas / opinions?

Loads of ideas
but at the end of the day, Darren, and most of us, just need somethi9ng that can be fixed if it goes wrong. Me, I'd go down the distributor less Ford EDIS system route that I've started upon. Unfortunately, as my car is currently off the road, I can't continue down this path and hand over a working solution.
What can be done is
An optical trigger can be used, but as a word of warning from someone who puts electronic components through temperature extremes - Opto devices don't like high temperatures ! How hot do you think it can get inside the dizzy on a hot day just after you switch it off ! Talk about portential hot start issues ! Most use indictive pickups now. as used on the 6 pin CDi box. This may be a better route... I've no idea of cost, but the 6 pin CDI is very similar to the 3 pin, and you'd just need to change the dizzy to the inductive pick up one (Theoretically - I've no idea if these parts physically interchange )
In the mean time is the wear really that significant ? I'll bet it doesn't cause much problem really. But we all want our cars to be spot on, and who could blame us, wear is wear... It can be fixed, but I don't know where !
Check out the warm up regulator, and is there a cold start injector on the CIS too ?
Cheers
Tim

[Gilbert '71 T]

Thanks for all the replies gents, I quite agree with you Barry on the dizzy wear limititaions by going optical, the centrifugal force will keep the cam centred slowing that wear. Pelican sell a Crane unit which could be worth trying out but I wouldnt want to leave it to chance that the optical unit could fry, at least with the conventional points and a good dizzy you at least know where you stand.

In the mean time is the wear really that significant ? I'll bet it doesn't cause much problem really.

Thought you might have a few idea's Tim The play is not that much at all, it causes the dwell angle to move from 37.9-38.0-38.1 degrees and that's it, which is reasonably acceptable, like you say though we all want our cars spot on and why not.

Still going to look into the dizzy rebuild I'll let you know what happens, after all it's only going to be bushes that need replacing surely

Regarding the CIS stuff i need to do some more reading up on it before i start making any adjustments, from what i have read control pressures at the warm up regulator and CO levels are the base starting points.

I've already checked the cold start injector and current supply while someone cranked, a nice even spray, and replaced the bakelite holder for it as well as that was cracked.

It's all good fun innit

[fourteener]

I like the idea of using the EDIS unit for crankfire ignition..but then you're looking at programable advance etc.
There is a homebrew unit called megajolt for this, a bit like the megasquirt injection unit.

[impmad2000]

I know Megasquirt well. Ran My Maserati Biturbo using it
You can use Megasquirt in ignition only mode, create a reliable map using it, and then once satisfied with it, switch the CIS injectors to EFI ones (using Bitz racing injector adaptors) and bin all that troublesome CIS K-Jet stuff .
Of course the EDIS kit can sit in the engine bay alongside the conventional. This gives two systems, all you do to switch between the two is change the spark plug leads This is how I mounted the crank toothed wheel.

Sorry Darren, Hijack over.....
Tim

[team914]

A friend who is restoring a 2 litre 911 needed to have distributor rebuilt and the advance curve profiled to make sure all was ok as original spec.
He used Motormeister in the USA and was very happy with results.

http://www.motormeister.com/suz/perf_ra ... racing.htm

[davidppp]

I know a very reliable old chap who does nothing but dizzy rebuilds, recurves etc.

Not in London, obviously, though....

Kind regards
David

[steve wright]

I will have a 2.2S bosch distributor in good working order for sale as soon as the twin plug dizzy is in (should be this week) so that might be a more economical route. plus a 3pin CDI box. cheers, Steve