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TR2/3/3A Early Distributor Questions

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CJD

CJD

Yoda
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I am rebuilding the TR2 distributor...40403 is the number. I have a couple questions for any of you familiar with the first generation distributor.

Last year I bought a truckload of odd parts, including 3 distributors. I'm busy trying to build 2 working ones out of the 4. I have one 40403, and 2 somewhat newer models to work from.

First question...the early distributor came with a fiber washer between the bottom and the drive dog. The later washers are brass. Is there an advantage to using the brass washer from the later models on the earlier units? Assuming the main shaft is held down by gravity, I don't think the washer sees much load.

Second question...even with all these distributors, I do not have a single set of springs between the whole lot! Moss sells an assortment, but I have an assortment of springs already from decades of distributor rebuilds on other cars. So, can somebody tell me if I should use a light, medium, or heavy spring on the TR2?

Finally, I am missing one weight. Just one! Is there a supplier for those?
 
John, I have a few distributor parts that I collected along the way, and one on my car that I made out of the group of them. I don't remember any of them having brass washers, but my memory is not so good. I do remember that driving the peg out to free the drive dog can easily bend the shaft. The shafts are not very strong. When I finally had one all assembled, the point gap was different at each lobe (bent shaft) and I had to start over. The 2 springs are not the same size, but I don't know about the weights. If you want, you can have my unused stuff, but some of it might not be the same. Here are the markings from the cases taken apart: I think the last 3 or 4 digits are the week/year.

40698A V202 560
40698A V202 1059

and on my car: 40480D V167 359
 

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Thanks Jerry...mine had those exact springs, but I never dreamed that was original! I thought for sure they had to be "hacked" in at some time. Apparently the shafts are a problem, as that's the reason I'm only going to have 2 working out of the 4 I started with. I never would have thought to check the gap at multiple lobes...but I will definitely make that a standard practice!
 
Interesting article , Doug. It refers to the "primary" and "secondary" spring timing...which explains why there are 2 different sized springs on the weights. I guess the goal was a steep advance for the first couple thousand RPM, and then a more shallow advance curve after that.
 
Marcel (the document's author) has also written about converting British engines to use the mid-1980s Nissan Sentra/Pulsar distributors. In that article he shows advance curves for several common and performance engine distributors. Most of the performance curves are shaped as you mention, more aggressive advance curve/slope in the first 2000 RPM, then a bit less steep a curve from there on up to about 3500 after which some (but not all) the curves flatten out.
 
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