Hi Stuart,
I'm fortunate with this MGB that its distributor base is not too worn
to clamp solidly into the plate. There isn't much life left in it,
though, and I too have installed the Pertronix. The reason for the
Pertronix was that the shaft bushing was worn and I couldn't get a steady
dwell meter reading. Ordered a new bushing but my machinist said it
wouldn't work without more extensive work than he was prepared to do.
Ordered an installed the Pertronix. The Pertronix helped a lot with the
dwell problem. The engine ran much smoother and had more power.
MGB Driver, December 2004 issue, had an article about the problems
Moss had obtaining the right bushing, said that the Lucas bushing that
was being supplied to them needed to be further worked in order to fit
properly. That, in essence, is what my machinist had said. The article
went on to say that Peter Caldwell, World Wide, had made up bushings that
fit properly. I sent a note to Peter, who replied promptly confirming
that he does have bushings in stock, asking what distributor number I
had.
Checked the distributor and found that it is a #40897, for the 62-70
cars, not the #41370 that the Moss catalogue says is the proper one for
this 1972 car. I have a spare distributor, a #41339 for the 1971
engines. At this point I'm just sitting on the situation. If I can find
a #41370, perhaps swapping my spare one or the one on the engine for it,
I will install new bushing and set it up properly. Until then, the engine
is running OK for an old engine with worn rings and probably other wear
issues too.
For those two pesky bolts on the clamp base, I modified an open-end
wrench into a sort of double crows-foot wrench by bending the ends. It's
still awkward--maybe I should grind away some of the jaw metal to reduce
its size. I'll check out the Sears site too.
Bob
On Sat, 30 Apr 2005 19:54:11 -0700 "Stuart MacMillan"
<macgroup@comcast.net> writes:
> Bob,
>
> You are right about the damaged distributors. I've done it, but it
> took me
> 35 years to break it, and I really needed a new one anyway! You are
> a far
> more careful person than I am.
>
> I think you could use a "crow's foot" wrench to get at those bolts.
> This
> isn't the right set, I'm just providing an example, but Sears sells
> one that
> is inch calibrated:
> http://tinyurl.com/7equ3
>
> Since I installed a Pertronix ignition system years ago, I too use
> the
> adjustment knob to set my timing. Now it's for "knock tuning" to
> the grade
> of gas I am willing to pay for (I want to get every penny's worth of
> energy
> out of it, and I've found the timing is very stable without points.)
> I read
> somewhere that that is what it was designed for. It allowed you to
> adjust
> for the varying octane rating of gas while traveling in "mid
> century" Europe
> without using any tools.
>
> Stuart
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