electronic distributors - any further feedback?

[Ian Williams]

Ruairidh what would make a useful comparison for those who are wondering about long term robustness is if you were to strip and measure a high mileage Accuspark as throughly as I have with a new unit. My belief was that the lack of wear in a new unit was the chief cause of the improvements many were reporting, however my investigations have proven beyond doubt that the new Accuspark distributor in my possession was, through cheapness of build and probably a lack of quality control, actually exhibiting as much if not more play than a worn Lucas unit. The only think working better in the Accuspark was the advance mechanism, which provides a large part of the answer, however the Accuspark advance curve is not particularly good for many sevens and this is why in my opinion timing difficulties are often experienced with them. I suggest many, as Martin has, will find that the electronic base plate will work as well or better on a Lucas distributor, that is unless it is absolute scrap! I will post further measured results from all the road tests I have done, they take a while to compile, and I am trying not to be subjective so bear with me.
I am doing all of this because many have been lead to believe, unintentionally or not, that they have to make all sorts of modifications to a seven (no not just electronic distributors ) whereas I maintain, and will continue to play devils advocate, that if one puts things into good working condition an awful lot of these mods for normal everyday use are completely unnecessary. And all this is coming from an avid special builder! Horses for courses and we all have different reasons for playing with sevens, however with some of the nonsense talked at times it is a minefield for inexperienced.