Red Rotor Arms

[David Morris]

Hi all,

Has this happened to you? You go out to the garage, ease yourself into the driving seat and prepare to start her up, as you do on a regular basis. Ignition on, I have an electric fuel pump in the Javelin, so there is the normal welcoming 'patter' of the pump filling up the carbs. Wait until everything goes quiet. Choke out, and she should start almost immediately. Whoops! Yes, the starter is churning away but there is nothing. Not even a cough! Have I flooded the carbs...the sun beats down on the east-facing garage door and it can get quite warm in the morning....ummm!

Turn off and investigate. Carbs full of fuel. She ran a couple of days ago like a dream. I can hear a quiet 'pop' from the distributor when I turn her over by hand with the ignition on. Check the spark from the coil...yes nice and strong. Hmm... Spark at a sample plug, but rather weak...Decide to investigate the distributor. Dry inside and clean. Out of interest, I change the red rotor arm for a spare black one. Try again...and she roars into life!!

I can only suppose my red rotor arm 'went down', almost overnight. Although come to think of it, this hesitation in starting has happened before. I just put it down to me flooding her with too much choke when the engine was warm from the morning sun. Back into the house, and in a few moments I have ordered a new one from eBay. £5, including postage. Fingers crossed!

Anyway, took her out for a run straightaway and everything seems ok?

Hope all of you who are at the Rally will be having a lovely time?

All the best,

David

[Keith Clements]

Not sure the colour is the reason, but certainly there are many instances of rotor arms made from the wrong plastic being in circulation. Most people blame it on the Chinese!
In desperation in the olden days, before I carried a spare, I used a plastic bag stuck under it. High voltage coils can also make the problem worse or the habit of taking a spark plug lead off to test for a dead cylinder causes the spark to find its way to ground through the rotor.

[AmilcarJohn]

There are certainly poor quality new rotor arms out there...but don't do what I did and buy a 'new old stock' one either - I had that one fail after a couple of months. I have now fitted a high-quality one from the Distributor Doctor and all is well so far (at least with the distributor!).

John

[David Morris]

Hi John,

Yes, I read the comments on the web from ' Distributor Doctor' concerning dodgy red rotor arms. He says his have 'DD' stamped on them?

You have to be so careful these days with the quality of things. I have noticed a rash of the later type front wheel brake cylinders for later Javelins ( and presumably Jupiters? ) being available on the web and at car shows for around £25 each. They look pretty cheap and are not branded. I would suggest paying a bit more for a branded set. Also, spend around a tenner and get an extension plastic top tube for the brake fluid reservoir. Every time you open the bonnet you will see the fluid level in the tube and draw reassurance that you at least have brake fluid available in the system. The original metal tops to the reservoir seem to weld themselves to the tin can and then how often do you check those?

Take care,

David

[Keith Clements]

Or a level indicator and warning light. That way you know when driving along.

[Keith Clements]

Accuspark.co.uk http://accuspark.co.uk/rotors.html say their red rotor arms are to same spec as Distributor Doctor's. £4.95 for red and £1.50 for black.
Also they have distributors that can be used in the Javelin to which you can also fit electronic ignition if you desire. Note the advance curve will not be correct so you will have to play with springs and end stop. 25D or 23D for MGA . You can choose either the horrible (original) side cap or the end cap where swapping leads around is easy. http://accuspark.co.uk/distributors.html £40

Or if you want a proper job contact Martin at Distributor Doctor http://www.distributordoctor.com/ who can supply a DM2 to the original spec or recondition them .

[Alf Heseltine]

8F03B2F4-E82C-4D0A-AB4B-A47129F576F0.jpeg

Had a problem last year with the Accuspark distributor rotor arm starting to break up. They replaced the rotor arm.
Also had the condenser fail. Started intermittent, would clear for a time then fail again. Investigation showed
the condenser, of poor construction, with very poor internal contact method of the condenser, see pics.
Steve Mass of Long Beach USA did the same investigation & concludes the same, failure of this component seems
inevitable. Steve has covered this problem in detail & offers some alternatives, I am using an early lucas rotor arm
as replacement. http://www.nonlintec.com/sprite/cap_failure/

Alf.