advance spring

[cadetchris]

my advance/retard spring in the dizzy keeps coming off and thus the car stops totally.

any idea how i can stop it slipping off?

[MarkyB]

Do you mean the vacuum advance spring?
I guess so as it's more visible, there is a slot in the pin that it should engage with.
It should pull at a right angle, against hardly any resistance.

[cadetchris]

thats it, my little pin dosent have a little groove in it, it just keeps sliding off and i come to a stop

[katy]

Find a litle o-ring that will fit tightly on the pin and try that for a retainer. Might work, it's worth a try.

[bmcecosse]

That's a new one on me! Fit another dizzy!!

[cadetchris]

strangely its a newish dizzy, and its only about 3 years old. i might put the old one back one

[Alec]

Hello Chris,

if it's newish and the correct specification, I'd swop the base plate from your old unit. Have you been running this and the spring falling off being a new thing? Seems very strange?

Alec

[bmcecosse]

You could very gently 'bend' the spigot backwards - so the spring will not tend to slide up - but I'm amazed this is happening - never heard of it before!

[MarkyB]

I'd suggest filing some kind of slot round the pin.
As I said before there should be hardly any force involved in moving the plate, maybe this is the problem.
Also cars with inactive vacuum units continue to run, albeit not as well as they should.
Something else is going on here, take the base plate out and make sure the two parts move OK.