Friday, while heading home after some heavy thunderstorms, my '80 Spitfire
(with Allison electronic ignition) began to accelerate poorly and develope power
"poorly". It seemed to clear up some as the engine warmed so I attributed it to
the LUCAS archenemy, excess moisture and maybe a fouled plug (it has been over
12,000 miles since they were replaced or even looked at!). Saturday morning it
behaved the same way and I noticed that there was very poor power between 2500
and 3500 RPM, and when attempting "hard acceleration". If I could accelerate
through that band, or avoid it by shifting up from high RPM in each gear, it was
not too bad.
When I got home, I decided to check the plugs and maybe lubricate the
centrifugal advance weights. Since it was easiest, I opened up the distributor
first and I removed the "points deck" and to my surprise both weights were
loose. Both of the return springs were loose from their posts on the rotor
assembly. I reattached the springs, and bathed the weights liberally with
Castrol 20W50. After a few twists of the shaft to verify all appeared to be
working, I refitted the points deck and test drove the car. Full throttle
acceleration in all gears was met with power and no hesitation nor pinging.
Recent posts related to sporadic power or missing or pinging at or around
3000 RPM ought to look closely at their distributors!
regards, John Pratchios
|