More engine trouble - suggestions?

[JoeRowing]

Thank you - I'm pleased as punch with it - I had that saying about most fuel problems being electrical ringing in my ears all day yesterday and today LOL.

I'm still going to fit a new diaphram to the fuel pump and give the carb (yet another) clean.

[John Mason]

Joe, Have you thought of the old saying “If everything is ok then leave it alone”. Or “If it ain’t broke then don’t mend it.” I refer to of course to your comment on the fact it is pulling like a tractor. I would however do something about that stripped thread.

John Mason

[flywheel1935]

I also suspect ignition timing. Put  the steering column ignition lever to maximum advance, Slacken the distributor clamp, start the engine, rotate the distributor untill the engine runs at it's highest speed. This will give you slightly over advanced ignition timing, which you can alter on the steering column lever.

John, its a Ruby, they don't have advance and retard levers.

[JoeRowing]

Joe, Have you thought of the old saying “If everything is ok then leave it alone”. Or “If it ain’t broke then don’t mend it.” I refer to of course to your comment on the fact it is pulling like a tractor. I would however do something about that stripped thread.

A very good point John. I'm glad I took it apart to fit my spare baseplate as it turns out that the other thread insert was about to give up and the plate was badly cracked. Frankly I'm amazed it ran at all. The carb has had a good clean again and I cleaned up a spare bowl at the same time. I want to get my confidence in the car up and the Ruby into a state where I can drive it off to Essex to see my mum (and perhaps the bongtree club) from home in Exeter.

I checked the auto-advance whilst I was there in the dizzy and it all seemed pretty good. I'm seriously thinking of an electronic dizzy instead and keeping this one in the box as a spare.

[JoeRowing]

With a repaired dizzy and all the other bits I had a fantastic day out with three of us in the car yesterday. She's revving well, picks up perfectly and pulls really well. Thanks all for the help!

[Malcolm Parker]

In that case I would stick with the proper Lucas distributor.   As you have found out, you can at least repair/overhaul them, unlike a Chinese electronic gizmo.

[Howard Wright]

Hi Joe

I tried an electronic base plate mod (from accuspark I think?) in a DK4A.  I didn’t get on with it, probably because I am more used to a manual advance and retard.  As Malcolm has mentioned points can be repaired / replaced easily and cheaply.  Also I don’t think most electrickery includes advance and retard so you are still relying on the old bob weights (often a source of trouble on older distributors).

Cheers

Howard

[Ian Williams]

All the parts you require the refurbish an auto advance distributor were available quite recently. I couple of years ago dismantled a Chinese or perhaps Indian copy and found that it was so well made they had even replicated 90 years of wear into the design! The advantage of electronic is that you don't suffer the point float/timing scatter that you do in a worn out unit, hence the cheap knock offs appear a good idea by apparently improving running in the short term. The problem is they are not all that reliable on a noisy 6V electrical system and cant be fixed as easily when they break down. I also did tests against a properly refurbished original DK4A and found absolutely no measurable performance advantage.

[David Stepney]

I had my own distributor over hauled shortly after I had my car in 2018. Since then, the ignition system has been completely reliable. Although I check the points gap every 2500 miles, I have not yet had to reset them in a total of 15K miles covered. And, as Ian points out (sorry for the unintentional pun) you can fix any problems easily - on the side of the road if needs be.

[Ruairidh Dunford]

I find the electronic units on my own cars to be super and reliable. Most failures I have encountered are because of faulty wiring, causing a spark, or using coils that have less that 2.4 ohms of protection - both of which will fry the units quickly.

I always carry a conventional spare with me, in case of breakdown, but then I always did before using electronic ones.