> My apologies to all our colonial cousins for not knowing what this item is
> called in their countries. I refer to the bakelite bit that goes round
> inside the distributor to direct the spark to the correct cylinder.
David, no need for apologies. I have no idea what it's called in French
either. One of the few car parts with the same name in both English and
'American', it's called an ignition rotor, or usually just rotor for short.
> I have just had yet another sudden and total failure of one of
> these things,
> this time on a busy French roundabout at rush hour. This is the third time
> in about the last four years, not the worst, that was when I was
> overtaking
> a lorry going up a hill, but it has started me thinking whether there is
> something wrong in my bog standard ignition system.
There has been a rash of bad rotors in recent years, likely that is the
entire problem. Most of the failures seem to be with non-Lucas parts.
However, IMO, it's worth checking the resistance of your spark plug leads,
from the contact inside the distributor cap all the way to the spark plug
terminal. The resistance should not be more than about 10000 ohms (10
Kohms), and should be roughly equal for all cylinders. A bad connection,
perhaps where the screw in the cap pierces the wire or inside the plug
terminal, can put extra stress on the rotor each time that cylinder fires,
and lead to premature failure.
Randall
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