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The SUN also rises.....

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I have been plagued with poor performance over the last year and have demonstrated this with really bad spark plug color, popping and an occasion backfire. I have changed everything changeable and fine tuned to the nth degree, all to no avail. Finally snuck my TR6 into the Chevy/Toyota dealership and consulted my trusty old salt, old school mechanic. He hooked it up to the shop's $30K Sun diagnostic machine and told me what I didn't want to hear: my distributor was shot. (The shop foreman caught us and was POed that the mechanic was working with company equipment on company time; he just couldn't get over how cool my car was so he let it slide, I tipped the mechanic heavily) This is a fairly new rebuild that I paid good money for and it went south. He was able to put the machine through it's paces and showed me where the wobble in the shaft was affecting my firing, amongst other things. Luckily, I found a guy that came highly recommended and he will have me a new-rebuilt next week. Nothing like an oldtime mechanic who cut his teeth on farm equipment, and a very sophisticated Sun analyzer, to get to the bottom of a problem. To the guy in another post that is contemplating getting into a TR - IT NEVER ENDS! But, I think I am having fun.

Bill
 
Once you were told it was there, were you able to detect any wobble in the distributor shaft (either in situ or pulled out of the engine)?
 
Hi Geo, If you have shaft wobble and do not want to spend a fortune trying to rebuild a worn out dizzy,Just pop a Pertronix electronic module in and smile as you climb up Yarnell Hill. P.S. To detect that type of wear all you need is a good timing light or use a dwell meter. Either will show timing variations.---Keoke /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
Thanks. And here is a pic of us roaring up that hill on the way to Prescott -- smiling even w/o Pertronix.

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Yeah, but You are just starting to go up.---Keoke /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
What Jeff You too! oh Yeah bet chu used reverse all the way up. A real Bugger init?---Keoke /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/lol.gif
 
My last three LBCs (2 69 MGBs and my current 68 TR250) all had about 75K miles (or more) and 35+ years on them when I acquired them. On all three one of the first jobs was to replace the well worn distributor with a new or rebuilt one and install a new fuse box. Then a comprehensive tuneup including valve adjustment, new filters all around and then carb adjustment. Provided the engine is in decent condition these simple steps have eliminated most of the usual complaints leveled at our beloved rides.
 
Well Andy, at a cost approaching $360.00 for a rebuilt Dizzy while an electronic module can be had for less than $100 bucks. I find myself pushed to economize in the up graded electronic direction.I might even be inclined to remove the loading on the cam and shaft bearings even with a decently working Dizzy by installing the electronic module. Different folks different strokes.---Fwiw---Keoke
 
I got my last rebuilt from Team Triumph for $250. One of the deciding factors in two of the cases I mentioned was the total failure of the vacuum advance modules. If these dont work no amount of electronics will help.
 
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I got my last rebuilt from Team Triumph for $250. One of the deciding factors in two of the cases I mentioned was the total failure of the vacuum advance modules. If these dont work no amount of electronics will help.

[/ QUOTE ]

Naw Andy,Somtimes we puposely block the Vac unit Off.---Keoke
 
The vacumn advance is strickly a pollution thing. Why not just block off the vacumn line to the dizzy and run centrifugal advance. My TR6 is set at 8 degrees BTDC at idle.

Bill
 
On my TR250 the advance is just that. I have a Lucas 41202B which uses only a vac advance, no retard module. My car originally had a dual advance/retard setup, but I couldn't find one. Unlike the later TR6s which used a retard module for emission control on the overrun, the advance unit on the 202B is part of the total advance curve.
To the original point, I think sometimes the electronics are used as a cure-all for a clapped distributor. I have been guilty of this myself. If the old distributor shaft has a minimum amount of play and the mechanical advance is not frozen or missing springs (or has weak or wrong springs), then by all means go with the Pertonix. Or not depending on where one is at with the old points vs. no points ignition arguement....
 
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