Distributor drive

["Slack Alice" Simon]

Apologies for this, it is late in a day of grandfathering 3 small children and a village meeting.  My tiny brain has stopped working altogether.



If Chris Blakey's distributor keeps chewing gears, how could an alternative be driven?

It would be fairly easy to make a direct drive off the end of the dynamo, more difficult but possible to do a right angle off the camshaft, but what speed does the dynamo do relative to engine speed?

I know it sounds crazy, from here, but the Russians are good at making do - whilst researching the trip I came across a couple whose Corsa engine blew, but they came back in the Corsa with a non Vauxhall engine transplant

 and a rally car that broke a crankshaft near the workshops of a power station, where they knocked the rallyists up another crank, and they went on their way.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Are the gears brand new?

There is certainly a problem with those supplied by a UK distributor refurbisher.

If the ones he is using are new, does he have original with him?

[Chris KC]

I've seen a few pictures of mashed distributor gears over the last year or so, the trouble is one does not generally know their provenance nor whether they were properly installed.

I'm aware of two or three apparently independent sources of gears.

I also suggest it is wise to replace both dynamo and distributor gears at the same time, so that you don't have a new gear meshed with a worn one. The height should be at least roughly right and, in a newly rebuilt unit, I would check there is no tightness in the distributor bushes (or resistance to turning, other than the points on the cam of course) to unduly load them. Plus of course they need some lubrication.

I don't know how to answer your question directly Simon but I do feel this is one we all need to get to the bottom of.

edit: We crossed posts Ruairidh but I've heard the same about the supplier I guess you are talking of. Good old ones may indeed be a safer bet, at least to carry as spares.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

I have just spoken with Simon and he confirmed my comments above, in all respects.

[Tony Betts]

We do have gears manufactured.

But they are NOT the soft ones, that are currently failing.

Ours are properly heat treated, and we have been supplying them for over 20 years.

They are made in small batches.

And as we only have 3 left from the last batch at the moment, please don't all rush forward at once  

I also have a small batch of these gears with a slightly larger pin hole, made for the BOSCH 009 etc. Some race boys fit them to standard distribs, for the strength of a larger pin.

7 county austins 

[attachment=7295]

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Just to add to Tony’s good news above, the gears that are fitted to the bottom of the Accuspark distributor units are also correctly hardened and machined.

[Chris KC]

I'm not really in a position to confirm that one is harder than the other, but when I look at one of Tony's (left) side by side with one from the other place (right), do I detect a slight difference in tooth profile? Maybe I'm imagining it...
   

[Tony Betts]

KC, you look exactly right.

A well known halfshaft manufacturer made the same mistake, and the wear on the teeth was the same.

I had there CWPs last year, because they were ok.  but they suggested they hadn't been warned to change the halfshafts. So I left them on the shelf.

Tony.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

Here is one from an Accuspark unit...


   

[Peter Johnson]

   

I’m not sure what it looked like originally, but it only lasted 1000 miles at the most. 

Peter