JimEB Posted November 7, 2014 Share Posted November 7, 2014 Hi all,Whilst fiddling around with my PI in an effort to trace the cause of hesitant revving when pulling away, I found not only that one of the front balance pipes (near the butterfly, not the head) was starting to split, but also that when twisting the rotor arm by hand, it felt notchy and not smooth as expected. This explained the sudden jump in advance whilst revving I'd seen the last time I had the timing light out... So, I guess a strip down of the distributor and thorough clean is in order.Now to my question - what type of lubricant is correct and where should it be used on the mechanism?Thanks :D (It's the correct, non-vacuum advance 25D type) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piman Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 Hello Jim, it's not that critical, for what it's worth I fill my oil can with 20/50 engine oil and that's worked fine for me. It's part of the routine maintenance schedule for two or three drops to be put down the spindle after removing the rotor arm, but as you suggest a strip down and clean then oil the bob weight spindles, and the main spindle when reassembling.Note to those with electronic devices, fit and forget doesn't apply to the distributor itself.Alec Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 Hah, must be a Pimiento PI thing. Mine was the same or worse (randomly self setting timing). My solution was a bit more drastic, but if sticking with distributors I'd completely agree with Alec's suggestions.Nick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimEB Posted November 9, 2014 Author Share Posted November 9, 2014 Thanks chaps :)I'm sticking with the dizzy, Nick, since I hope to keep the car as original as practicable ;) Pimento cars simply have added character... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimEB Posted November 12, 2014 Author Share Posted November 12, 2014 Well, the stripdown revealed that the cam was pretty much rusted to the shaft, so no wonder it didn't move smoothly and would sometimes get stuck at some advanced point, leading to variable tickover speed and unsmooth acceleration :roll: I took this photo just before removing the cam, so that I'd be able to put everything back together properly and not 180 degrees out... You can see the rust at the top of the cam...I gave the whole thing a thorough clean, but didn't take the shaft out of the body, since the bearing seemed to be fine.As for lubrication, I used grease on the action plate under the advance weights and their pivot posts, then engine oil on the cam and shaft.Having cleaned both fixed and moving parts of the base plate, and because there's no vacuum advance, simply micrometer adjustment, I simply used grease upon reassembly.Everything is now clean and working smoothly. One advance spring seems to have stretched or is simply the wrong one (I suspect the previous owner had been down there before) so I reckon I've only got one gradient of advance controlled by the primary spring. Nevertheless, the car is now driving much smoother, particularly at lower revs were it had evidently been suffering from a lack of advanced ignition. I'll be able to give it a good road test and fine tune on Friday, when I'll be blasting up to the NEC to work on the Register stand :D The moral of this story? If your engine's not pulling well from tickover, twist your rotor arm! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
junkuser Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 One spring does sit loosely. Comes into action with further advance.Possibly that is what you are seeing Jim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted November 12, 2014 Share Posted November 12, 2014 junkuser wrote:One spring does sit loosely. Comes into action with further advance.Possibly that is what you are seeing Jim.+1. Usually the heavier spring but not always.Nick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimEB Posted November 12, 2014 Author Share Posted November 12, 2014 Yes, but the issue is that the larger spring (on the right in the photo above) doesn't go into tension before the cam beak hits the end post... ;)I'll call the Distributor Doctor tomorrow :)Does anyone know of a Lucas parts manual, listing springs/weights for each distributor? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Jones Posted November 15, 2014 Share Posted November 15, 2014 4247 wrote:Yes, but the issue is that the larger spring (on the right in the photo above) doesn't go into tension before the cam beak hits the end post... ;)I'll call the Distributor Doctor tomorrow :)Does anyone know of a Lucas parts manual, listing springs/weights for each distributor?Fair enough.Not sure this is exactly what you are after but interesting anywayhttp://www.triumphowners.com/uploaded/34/111457_86lucas_dissy_tuning.pdfNick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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