As far as I know the vacuum retard was introduced to reduce the
emissions at idle. It can be removed and the idle adjusted to
compensate. There are some that say it does no harm since it plays no
role off idle and results in a smoother idle anyway so leave it alone. I
took it off along with all of the other narrow tubing related
paraphernalia and replaced the dizzy with an older model with vacuum
advance and I'm not unhappy with the result.
Stan
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-6pack@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-6pack@autox.team.net] On
Behalf Of James Juhas
Sent: Wednesday, September 13, 2006 12:27 PM
To: TR6 List
Subject: Vacuum Retard
I'm trying to tell whether the vacuum retard unit on my 1973 TR6
distributor is working properly. When I apply a vacuum to it, it moves
but does not hold the vacuum, so returns to its resting position. It's
as if a sudden vacuum signal would move it, but then it drops back.
Should it behave this way, or is it simply leaking?
A supplementary question is: does this engine really need this feature
for performance reasons, or is the vacuum retard only an accommodation
to emissions control? I am converting this car from downdraft webers to
SUs and this provides me with a vacuum signal at the carb which, I
believe, will be present at partial and full throttle, and this seems
wrong to me to connect this to a retard unit. In the normal Stomberg
setup, where does the retard vacuum unit port attach?
Thanks.
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