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Re: tossed Lucas dist avail for sale?

To: Aribert_Neumann@magna.on.ca
Subject: Re: tossed Lucas dist avail for sale?
From: Bob Lang <LANG@ISIS.MIT.EDU>
Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2000 11:14:02 -0400 (EDT)
Cc: triumphs@autox.team.net
On Tue, 11 Apr 2000 Aribert_Neumann@magna.on.ca wrote:

> If your old dist still has a functioning tach drive gear and it is
> available for sale, I would be interested in purchasing it (actually you
> could keep the dist as a paper weight if you were willing to pull out and
> sell the tach drive gear). 

I cc'd back to the triumphs list - this is probably of interest there...

Ummm... sorry. No tach drives available.

>  As a side note, why is the Mallory unit superior - could a stock dist
> be recurved and get similiar results?  FWIW, I am using a Crane 700 series
> for ignition purposes and so dual point capablity is of no use to me.

You _could_ recurve a stock dizzy, but the Mallory unit has stiffer 
springs, and you can recurve it by loosening two screws and moving a 
plate to get more curve. In other words it's way more adjustable than the 
Lucas 22D.

On the Lucas unit, you have to either grind the advance plate or replace 
it with another one. But all the ones I've taken apart are limited to 12 
degrees of advance, so there _may_ be issues in finding advance plates 
with more then 12 degrees of advance... I might want a bit more than that 
with my race car.

But the bottom line as regards to the Mallory dizzy - it's made very 
well. There is no ground strap wire to break, and the connection from the 
dizzy housing to the points is done with "real wire", not that braided 
little flexible stuff in the Lucas unit. If you've played with these cars 
very much, you've no doubt seen/heard of folks whose cars quit completely 
and the reason is the freakin' little wire. YUCK!

If you're dead set on electronic ignition, there is an electronic thingie 
you can put in the Mallory unit to make it not use points. If I get my 
motor to run in the 7000 to 8000 RPM range, I'll look into that unit, but 
if I'm going up that high in the revs, I'll probably convert to 
Electromotive or other crank-triggered ignition.

There's a wide variety of methods that you can use to solve ignition 
problems on these cars.

But that begs the question: why are you dead-set on getting your 
mechanical tach to work when you're using electronic ignition? Why don't 
you convert your tach to an electronic tach?? Seeing that the dizzy drive 
gears appear to made from "unobtanium", you should seek alternatives.

Me - I _need_ the tach. So I have to have something that'll work. 
Ideally, I would have obtained a Mallory unit with tach drive, but I've 
been having problems tracking one down. In the mean time, the AutoMeter 
8000 RPM tach should do the trick.

Entreprenuer item of the day: tach drive gears for TR6's that have Lucas
22D dizzys. Anyone that made these should be able to sell a million of
them. Well, at least 500 or so. 

;-)
rml

p.s. have you looked into cam-driven tach gears from Pegasus or the other 
racing shops?? If you want mechanical tach accuracy - then the cam-driven 
solution might work for you. Of course "some fabrication would be required".
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