Marcus wrote about "distributor advance"
>>In my childlike manner I decided to pull apart the distributor that I pulled
>>out of the Midget on saturday. Got the breaker/points plate off, then hammered
>>the pin out and pulled the drive dog off and finally pulled the spindle and
>>cent. adavnce system out.
>>
>>I spent around half an hour trying to figure how this damn thing advances
>>the timing. For one thing...I couldn't MOVE the wieghts at all...not good!
>>Liberall amounts of WD40 was applied, and with a lot of effort and a pair
>>of pliers, I could manage to make the cam move towards the post. The only
>>way I could get the weights to go back to the 'in' position was to use a
>>screwdriver to lever to cam back. There was no way that those tiny springs
>>were going to pull that cam back!!
This brings back memories for me...it was about a month ago when I took my '74
midget disi apart and found a similar situation. Mine didn't require pliers,
but
a lot of carb cleaner was necessary to get everything moving again. I cleaned
things up on the wire wheel and greased them with white lithium grease.
>>I assume you are meant to be able to move the weights 'out' with your fingers,
>>and they should be pulled back in by the springs....surely the mech.
>>shouldn't be this stiff??? I guess I should have checked the other dizzy
>before
>>I plopped it in...that one had been sitting for three years! (My car sat for
>10
>>years!!!).
When the system is working properly, the fact that the weights are on a pivot is
what allows them to advance. They're heavier out near the free end, and the
spinning action forces them to advance the spark. The springs don't need to be
very strong to pull them back, if everything is lubricated and free to move.
After putting the distributor back into my midget, it runs much more smoothly
(as
one might expect) and accellerates better.
Marcus
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