Distributor spindle tolerances; original and accuspark comparison

[Hedd_Jones]

Ian, please do not keep your trap shut.

I'm not one of the originality brigade, my cars have re manufactured Bosch dizzys on them. I like them as they are relativity cheap, at present good quality parts are widely available (unlike the generally poor quality parts available for the Lucas units, only availible from specialists), and above all carrying some points, a condensor and a cap in a box about 3 inches square I can repair most likely ailments on the side of the road with little delay.

I had a look at a new electronic lucas clone. Quality is no better or worse than my Bosch units. But my view is a unit that either works, or is fubar and requires specialist supplied parts to repair is nothing but a retrograde step. Hence Ive not bought one.

The dynamotor is a different proposition, I'm terrible for looking after my batteries. What doesn't help is the period charging systems that boils the battery and I never top up. The old fashined dynamo certainly works perfectly well, I've never melted an armature yet (despite some strong outputs), but I have buggered a few cut outs, which are not cheap in themselves to replace and overhaul, and they are never the same as a new Lucas unit. Replacing a dynamo with a dynamotor does offer benefits to me. I'm probably going to start throwing my chummy together soon. I do not have a known 'good' dynamo to put on it (though I have about two dozen unknown units), I do not have the correct cut out, and not many incorrect ones. A dynamotor solves both problems for less cost, and the benefit is that it will look after my battery better, and only a geek would notice. In time I have been planning to buy 3, possibly 4. As I have been in no rush, I have been happy to let others find the problems.

The problems with the gears is clearly an Austin 7 related issue, the dynamotor 'model' has been about a number of years for vehicles with belt drive so the electrical side of things should be well tested by now. No doubt being of Chinese origin I have no illusions that they are a 'quality' item, but nevertheless the price is realistic. The problems however have been unfortunate, and I hope do not mean that the product will be removed from the market.

The manufacturer would do well simply to go and see someone like Tony, buy his entire stock of old dynamos, pay an eastern european minimum wage to take all the gears off and send them to the dynamotor manufacturers to fit them to the newly manufactured units. Problem solved. They'd probably do ok weighing in all the old armatures too.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

I did not say anyone is being forced to do anything, and forgive me for my assumption but I thought in an early discussion we had about these one of your considerations for using them as opposed to a rebuilt Lucas was cost, added to which you had bad experiences with Distributor Doctor's units. I have also not said that you had anything to gain other than perhaps convenience from using them, obviously they work for you, but in fairness you have the skill to notice and repair any failings which some others quite obviously do not. As I said perhaps I am a luddite, I mean no offence to you or anyone else, I am just trying to be a voice of reason so people stop and think rather than rush in and get burned.

Hi again Ian,

I have never used the services of the Distributor Doctor so your statement is simply untrue, something I am not keen to be associated with to be honest.

Cost is always a consideration - not always in solitude however and sometimes ‘at a cost’. I am sure many are able to juggle this conundrum however.

I have tried to be balanced and factual in my reporting.

All the best.

[Ian Williams]

Hi Rory, as this seems to be getting personal and you are publicly implying that I am telling lies perhaps you will clarify for the forum what you actually did say to me about the distributor doctors rebuilds and why you would not use his services.

[GK5268]

Distributor Doctor rebuilt my DK4A and this had problems, it went back twice under warranty for further work, the second occasion was to replace a bush because it was "worn", how this could have been on a re-built item that had barely seen road use (the car broke down because of the faults), and I was still left with a fault of the rotor arm riding up the shaft, which meant that each time after using the car, I had to remove the dizzy cap and press the rotor arm down - I suspect that the shaft had worn to a slight taper, i did measure this but could not discern any difference top & bottom.

Fast forward from 2015 (when the car returned to the road) to 2017, the advent of a whole new Accuspark distributor seemed to me to be a perfect replacement for the re-built Lucas dizzy - I was already running with the Accuspark ignition in the re-built Lucas dizzy and was happy with this, so went ahead and ordered the complete unit and this has been in the car since last year (not sure if this was before or after I rebuilt the engine last August). Apart from the cheap oiler (which I was going to swap over for a decent one), it has worked fine and I was satisfied.

Moving to the present month, seeing a report that the gear on the Accuspark distributor was seemingly causing a problem, I removed my dizzy and grease was dark grey (Castrol general purpose so beige) and was gritty with metal filings - photos posted elsewhere on the Forum. Cleaned it all out and re-packed with fresh grease. Checked again yesterday, the fresh grease was just as before, I had only done 20 miles, cleaned it out again and re-packed a second time with fresh grease. I also ran a hacksaw blade over the drive gear and this seemed to be suitably case-hardened, but something is wearing...

Today, I did a dial gauge test on the play to the shaft at the rotor arm, I was getting around 0.030", it was not like that when it was fitted, I recall thinking how nice it was not to have any play at all when comparing this to the old re-built Lucas unit that was replaced. The play should not really make any difference with an electronic set-up as there is not any contact at the business end, just a little bit disconcerting that wear has taken place over a relatively short space of time.

Since I first discovered the dirty grease (it was not like that when I removed the old Lucas unit), I was worried that I might have a problem, so when NOS DK4A appeared on eBay for sale, I bought it - it was actually a factory reconditioned item dating from 1952 that had never been used and was still in its original 1952 Lucas box, all correctly marked up. It did not have a drive gear, so I sent it over to Distributor Doctor to fit (and they gave it a lube up) and I am going to fit this in the car, hopefully, tomorrow.

As I can't find the receipt for the Accuspark dizzy, I am going to pull this apart and see if I can work out why this has worn, I will check that the gears are correct, visually, they look ok, so nothing obvious like too many or not enough teeth, and see what is going on.

My dynamo was fully re-built and converted to two-brush & 12v by Classic Dynamo & Regulator Conversions as part of the return to the road so the gears had all been checked as part of that work and there was not any issue with dirty grease when the re-built Lucas unit was installed, so I am mystified why this is like it is, I just hope that the dynamo gear is not taking the wear.

All told, I have spent quite a bit of cash getting the ignition and charging as good as I can to ensure reliability (CDRC also supplied a solid state regulator, so charging is spot on) and it is somewhat disappointing when things do not live up to expectations and the work has to be done again (and again) in order to get things right.

I certainly would not go back to the old points system, the quality of modern ignition parts is too poor to rely on and I do like that the state of tune is constant. I am hoping for a satisfactory resolution with the NOS Lucas distributor - 10 days, the car will be expected to do a 200-mile round trip for the Beaulieu Rally, am a little anxious...

[Nigel was in Brittany]

Maybe Tony Ibbotson from Accuspark can give us some sort of reply to this new problem to those of us who have invested over £300 in their allegedly faulty products, but of course, his reply will be (quote) "We are absolutely not accepting liability "