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MGB 77 MGB Distributor Problem

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kyreb1862

kyreb1862

Jedi Knight
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First a little back ground. The car is a 77 MGB, mostly stock, fitted with the Lucas 45 DM 4 distributor, the CEI system. I have owned this car for six years. I am currently in the process of converting to SU HIF 4 carbs. While in the process of balancing the Su's today the car wanted to run a bit rough and pop back trough the carbs. I checked the timing and found it much to advanced so I set it on 10 degrees BTDC and all was good. Then suddenly the car just stopped. I tried the starter and it cranked well but no start. I walked around to the ditributor side of the car to check electrical connections when I suddenly realized that the distributor had turned until the vacuum adavnce unit was against the starter. I thought the distributor may have gotten loose and turned but I quickly found out that I could not turn it by hand. I took a hammer and block of wood and finally got the distributor tapped around to a position that I knew the car would start in. I went back to the passenger compartment and hit the key, still nothing. I went back to check the distributor and it had done the same thing again. Could someone please tell me what is causing this? I haven't had a chance to pull the distributor yet and probably won't before this weekend. Any help would be sincerely appreciated.
 
Here is an update on my problem. As i stated earlier, I have owned the car for six year. In all that length of time the distributor had been stuck in the block making a hammer and piece of wood necessary to even set the timing. What I didn't know was that my DPO had been at work on the distributor. One lucky break in all this is that when the distributor made its second swing counterclockwise that it finally broke loose. When I got back to the car yesterday I could easily turn the distributor by hand. I pulled the distributor and quickly found the problem. The DPO had at some point in the past at least partialy disassembled the distributor. The screws that hold in the plate that the pickup mounts on, or I should say screw since one was missing, were small sheet metal screws. One had worked out and dropped into the advance weights causing the distributor to bind and make a rapid counterclockwise movement. luckily I had loosened the clamp plate several years ago in a vain attept to try and loosen the distributor so there is no outward damage to the distributor. Luckily I have a spare on hand to use until I can get the old one rebuilt.



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