Distributor overhaul

[smithymc]

Fuel blockages aside, the Choco Lime is not living up to her potential ,as the timing seems v.erratic. The guys at the garage demonstrated the way it wavers at idle with a strobe, with the odd wild 'kick' of retardation thrown in every 20 seconds or so.

She doesn't always want to pull/rev, which I am sure is against the nature of the engine.

I am pretty sure mine is a Bosch unit, interestingly, the Haynes only shows how to overhaul the Marelli type.
Is there a simple( ish )procedure for freelng the weights etc?

Thanks.

Mark

[dougdee123]

Before you get carried away renovating the distributor, have a look at the earthing of the coil unit and the bosch ignition control unit located on a plate on the offside front strut.

If the earthing here is inadequate then the sparks are a bit weedy. I increased the cable to a rather chunky size (25A ?) all round there.

D

[Neil-yaj396]

Take it your car still has the original points ignition? Have you changed the points and condenser? Is the vacuum advance fitted/working?

[smithymc]

Neil

Yep, she is still on points - new ones with a condenser. Dwell and timing check out too. New coil, HT leads, plugs too.

How would I test a vacuum advance? By applying a vacuum I suppose?

With the low miles, I would hope that the whole distributor is not knackered, but I've been wrong before on this project!

Mark

[smithymc]

In avoiding the Murray tennis hype until they actually started playing on Sunday, I managed to get the distributor off again.

It is a purely centrifugal type with no vacuum advance, and there seems no way of removing the contact plate to get at the weights without damaging it.

It looked a bit rusty viewed through holes in the plate so I doused it in penetrating oil, let it soak then repeatedly span the shaft by hand - the weights could be seen and heard to move quite freely.

Its back on waiting for another test drive.

In looking for parts I came across Leen APK in Holland, who sell electronic distributors for Fiat Twin cams- anyone tried one? ( if they fit- seem mainly for 124s)

Mark