Distributor Caps

[Jules]

Hi All, I hope you are well. I was wondering if I could get some advice, I have a1971 Stag with electronic ignition. As part of my maintenance schedule I recently changed distributor caps, the new one quickly failed leaving me at the side of the road, luckily I had the old one, when I got home the central spring loaded contact point inside the cap was gone, so I assumed a one off and bought a new cap. This one lasted about 30 miles and then the car misfired and the engine stopped. Again I swapped back to the old and the car drives fine. One cap from rimmers, the other from robsport. Can you recommend where I can get a new one that might work? Is this an issues you have seen? I just parted with my lovely spitfire but I had the same trouble getting points and condensers, took 3 or 4 go’s to get a new set that worked!

many thanks all

Jules

[mole42]

Distributor Doctor has the only ones that seem to work and last. I too have a number of failed ones from various sources - the DD one has been on there for about 20,000 miles now.

[DJT]

Moved from Technical Section

There is much concern regarding poor quality parts being supplied for our cars. See 'Crap Parts' thread.

Have you given feedback to the suppliers?

Personally, and this is backed up by others, I would not by ignition parts from anyone but The Distributor Doctor - https://distributordoctor.com/

[marshman]

What was wrong with the old cap?? If you keep going back to that one leave it on and if you feel the need to have a spare get a new one and put it in the boot, you know it should last around 30 miles!!

Regular oil and filter changes, regular coolant changes, everything else check over at service time but if it looks OK and was working fine, leave well alone.

[Jules]

Thanks for the tips, old one was starting to look worn so I thought as I was doing plugs, oil etc I should do it. Until now the car has never let me down over 8 years and about 20k miles! Will go to distributor doctor! Thanks All!

[Jules]

By chance would anyone know the part number to use on the distributor doctor website for the cap and rotor arm, same trouble with the new rotor arm too!! Thanks!

[DJT]

Cap is one listed for 35D8 distributor. Cross references to GDC117 as listed on RB website. Rotor arm for same distributor.

If in doubt, phone or email. They are very helpful.

[jbuckl]

I feel this pain…. Only today I tried fitting new ignition parts that did not work.

I had success using a new beru branded distributor cap.

I cannot find a link to a beru distributor cap.

However, they were sourced from ‘Quattro corner’ and Audi parts specialist, local to me.

The proprietor has a fleet of British classics, hence is stocking this decent distributor cap.

http://www.quattrocorner.com/

[Matt Cook]

Do you have electronic ignition? I found that the magnetic pick up wasn’t sitting down properly, this meant that the rotor arm whilst still secure was a fraction too high which in turn compressed the centre pick up, I think this led in part to the failure of the centre pick up. Thankfully I caught it before failure during regular checks / tinkering.

[richardthestag]

Hi All, I hope you are well. I was wondering if I could get some advice, I have a1971 Stag with electronic ignition. As part of my maintenance schedule I recently changed distributor caps, the new one quickly failed leaving me at the side of the road, luckily I had the old one, when I got home the central spring loaded contact point inside the cap was gone, so I assumed a one off and bought a new cap. This one lasted about 30 miles and then the car misfired and the engine stopped. Again I swapped back to the old and the car drives fine. One cap from rimmers, the other from robsport. Can you recommend where I can get a new one that might work? Is this an issues you have seen? I just parted with my lovely spitfire but I had the same trouble getting points and condensers, took 3 or 4 go’s to get a new set that worked!

many thanks all

Jules

Not your fault Jules but everything you wrote I just find so depressing. Did you contact robsport and rimmers to discuss the faulty parts?

Personally I ignore shiny fancy websites and big brand names when it comes to anything ignition related. There is just too much rubbish that doesn't work being sold by them, they do not appear to be doing anything about it either.

Distributordoctor as others have said. best is to phone them, they are super helpful and it is good to talk. You will need to tell them what electronic ignition setup you have fitted as there are 2 different rotor arms. Lumunition and piranha require the wide tail / fan tail rotor the same as for the OE points setup. Pertronix and cheaper modern internal modules require the shorter height narrow tail or thin rotor arm.

If you have a cheaper module, there are 2 fairly widely available. they can fail (first hand experience on this one) due to the extreme heat in that part of your engine, starts with a misfire and seconds later it is goodnight Vienna followed by the recovery of shame. best not be on a smart motorway when that happens

[jbuckl]

Fitted new ignitor last weekend.

no spark.

refitted points.

thats 3 with cough early life failure now.

typically no receipt / over 12 months since acquired and zero good will… now on both sides.

new name ‘pee-spark’ if you get the drift

[DJT]

Fitted new ignitor last weekend.

no spark.

refitted points.

thats 3 with cough early life failure now.

typically no receipt / over 12 months since acquired and zero good will… now on both sides.

new name ‘pee-spark’ if you get the drift

Julian,

Your post is confusing. You say you fitted a new 'ignitor', which failed.

Ignitor is a brand name used by Pertronix, which are usually cited as reliable, and supplied by DD.

Pee-spark would, by me anyway, be assumed to refer to Powerspark which, like Accuspark, don't have such a robust reliability reputation.

[richardthestag]

I had an issue with one Pertronix Ignitor which I destroyed comprehensively due to my own misfortune/stupidity.

Installed it to a 35DLM8 *nasty pattern cheap ****ty ******* wank fest of a chinesium copy" distributor. It ran but badly. I was getting a very strong spark but not necessarily at the right time.

So I withdrew the distributor with ignitor installed and connected. I just happened to brush the tail of the distributor across the alternator body and got a healthy, mildly painful shock. Ah battery should have been disconnected ! doh.

Alas the ignitor didn't enjoy the experience as much as I did. The spark got progressively weaker until it was extinct.

Lengthy conversation with Martin at DD concluded that the flash against an earth whilst rotating the shaft was enough of a surge to damage the delicate electronics inside the module. Cost me dear though!

But seriously Julian if you have 3 fail then you may be doing something wrong. The replacement in a proper Lucas distributor body had no issues at all, just like every single other unit I have installed. Martin had only heard of one failure, alas he has to send them back to 'merica for testing before a refund can be issued,

Points on a stag is a PITA unless you remove the distributor and set them up on the bench. The Rom should have that at line 1.0 - "set engine to TDC and remove distributor from engine."

[richardthestag]

Pee-spark would, by me anyway, be assumed to refer to Powerspark which, like Accuspark, don't have such a robust reliability reputation.

I have seen them on Rover v8 and series landies perform for many years without issue, not entirely convinced that the dwell angle etc is as good as I might get with a robust points and condensor setup. Stag distributor is in somewhat of a hot zone hence the reputation issue with Stag v8.

Just in case not aware, rover v8 distributor is front of the engine V and right up close to the cooling fan. Stag v8 distributor is back of engine v and shielded from benefit of engine fan by just about everything. Additional challenges are presented by heater pipes and general exhaust and engine heat rising up from the transmission tunnel.

Defy you to touch your triumph v8 distributor body after a reasonable trip... Yeah, don't do that!

[Jules]

Hi All, thanks for the responses so got the distributor doctor parts but these have failed also, so it must be something else. Each time the rotor arms are scored on top where the contact with the cap and the carbon spring loaded contact appears damaged. Car runs fine for about 30 mins, then a burning smell then it dies and when you re-start you can hear arcing/sparking inside the dizzy cap, if you replace the arm it fires again but must be something I’m doing wrong??