'Lucas'(?) replacement rotors are rubbish too

[marvmul]

Yesterday two distributor rotors failed on my TR3 : during practice my engine stopped suddenly : trying to re-start I could heard loud sparks jumping : when I removed the distributor cap, the little copper bar on top of the rotor was loose and was on the bottom of the distributor. After fitting a new spare one, the car went very well and I managed to stay under 2 minutes at the track of Zolder for the first time.

During the race the same thing happened!

The bar is fitted with a sort of a nail  : the head is holding the bar and the pin is protruding about 5 mm in the rotor body : the first two laps of the race, things were normal, than I was slowly loosening power : the changing up points moved further up on the track and suddenly the engine cut out. The copper bar on the spare rotor was loose too! End of the race.

Why does the rotor fail : probably the loosing of the power was due to short cuts of the spark, via the nail to the distributor spindle : by consequence, the nail warms up and the surrounding plastic of the rotor body is melting and the nail falls out.

On the underside of the copper bar is the inscription : 'Made in England' : as long as the bar is fitted to the rotor body, one can only read a part of it : 'Mad' and 'Eng' and when the rotor has failed and the bar has loosened, you can read the complete inscription 'Made in England' : English humor I presume?

[Guest mikemd]

The replacement rotor arms seem to be of poor quality.I have had a similar problem after a few miles, and know of others. I now stick to an old genuine Lucas arm. Does anybody know of a reliable source for new arms?

[marvmul]

Mikemd - A friend of mine will send me a BERU rotor and distributor cap. He is a garagist and he says he had no problems with the BERU rotors so far.

[unclepete]

hi marvul

you mentioned 'track'.

sounds fun but you don't mention high power coil, special plugs, high revving engine?

could be the problem?

have fun

pete

[marvmul]

Mikemd, I got the BERU distributor cap and rotor today.

The no of the cap is VK 251BP (= no on the cap)and VK 251 0 330 920 151(=nos on the part).

The rotor has EVL 034 FO on it , I have no box of the rotor.

Hope this helps, I'll let you know if these rotors are ok.

[marvmul]

Pete : the ignition is a Lumenition 'Performance Ignition' optical triggered and with constant high energy through the revs (to 7000/') with a Lumenition high energy coil. I didn't heard of TR2-TR4 rotors failing so far, but the TR6 rotors do fail with the standard ignition too.

[unclepete]

marvul

having not looked at an electronic ignition system do you still retain the lucas rotor arm?

i thought these kits replaced all the gubbins inside the distributor cap (no more condenser, points, advance retard springs etc.)

i am interested in your 'end user' experience.

pete

[jonlar]

Pete, with Piranha (now Newtronics) the points and condenser are removed, but rotor arm removed - don't know about the other makes, but would assume rotor arm retained to put HT to correct cap pick up.

 

Has anyone tried repairing a rotor arm using JB Weld or similar?   This is a superb and strong epoxy filler adhesive and non-conductive unless metal dust added.

[marvmul]

In every electronic system voor TR's, the rotor arm and advance system are retained.

If a complete electronic ignition/injection system is fitted, the rotor arm is stil retained, but the advance system can be  discarded and replaced by a programmable mapped advance system.