Gessner wrote:
>
> Recently and, very inappropriately, my `65 TR4A cut out on the San Fran
> cisco Bay Bridge. After being pushed to safety, I immediately determined
> that it was not fuel-related (gas was being delivered to the
> carburetors. The points looked reasonable, and substituting a Lucas
> condenser fail ed to start the beast. Somewhat whimsically, I
> substituted the rotor a nd the car fired right up. Later - with the
> shrewd detective work perform ed by legendary TR3 race car driver - it
> seemed plausible that the act of changing the rotor may have corrected
> the problem by rephasing the r rotor relative to the spark contacts and
> that several ignition problems h ad overlapped and interacted: the timing
> chain, overdue for replacement, may have put the rotor out of phase in
> the first place, plus the distri butor baseplate was warped relative to
> the shaft, making a completely ac curate setting of the points difficult.
> These problems were corrected. A functioning spare coil was substituted.
> New spark plug leads, Lucas po ints, condenser and rotor were installed.
> The car would not fire and no juice was getting to the plugs. When -
> again with a certain amount of w whimsy - the rotor was replaced with an
> old, roachy Lucas rotor - it fire d up. Fired up as well, Hardy took the
> original rotor and performed exp loratory surgery on it (ie - drilled it)
> to discover that the center con ductive tongue was internally shorting
> out on the metal spring which ho holds the rotor to the shaft. A query
> to the list - has anyone had simila rly rare experience with a Lucas
> rotor?
>
> Peter
> TR4A
> San Francisco, CA
> email: Gessner@tlcs.com
I had the exact same experience on my TR6 two years ago.Now I always
carry a spare.
Stu
74 TR6 80 TR8
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