Hello all,
I just rebuilt my distributor, a Lucas 25D, and it's working great. My car was very original when I bought it and on starting it really seemed to struggle to find spark. I dove in headfirst and started upgrading the electricals. I think the only thing I really needed was new points, but I decided to throw in a pertronix I ignition and when I opened up the distributor it looked nasty inside.
I installed the new ignition into the filthy distributor, just to make sure it worked (which it did), and then decided to clean the whole thing up. I found some good guidance on a website (
http://simonlacey.com/pages_new/content/distributor%20rebuild.htm).
The only thing I really struggled with was getting the drive dog's pin out. I made a wooden jig to clamp the shaft in a vice without cracking it, but still it wouldn't budge (despite penetrating oil; maybe next time I try a 50-50 ATF/Acetone blend which some say is better). So taking a page from King Lear ('Striving to better, oft we mar what's well.") I decided to leave it and clean up every part I could with the shaft still in situ. Suboptimal yes, but way better than nothing. And I still managed to get the bottom cleaned out by wedging a bit of steel wool under the plate upon which sit the centrifugal weights, and rotating the shaft. Much carb cleaner as well. Then lubricated and reassembled.
At some point I do want to get that pin out, as the drive dog's washer probably wears out and needs replacing.
On the somewhat humorous side (or frustrating, depending how you look at it), I decided to give the very rusty cap clips a quick spa treatment on the wire brush side of my bench grinder- worked fine for one, but the 2nd caught on the brush and was instantly rocketed somewhere in my shop, and promptly disappeared within the jungle. My kids will probably find it when the are clearing out the house once I've passed on, so I ordered a replacement. Maybe it'll turn up but am not holding my breath.
Took much care (and photos) to ensure that I put it back together exactly as I had taken it apart, to avoid having my timing off 180 degrees.
Starts up strong. Now to see if I can find that timing mark on the balancer and do some dynamic timing. While much is written that a TR4A engine is to be statically timed, not as much is written on the right way to time a 50 year old TR4A engine. I got advice on that from my friends at Morgan Spares, and will give it a shot.
