Morris Minor Owners Club

HI all,

I ecently came across a distributor where the mechanical advance has been brazed to the plate that the points/condenser sit on. There seems to be no weights or springs below the plates in the bottom of the distributor. Also the vacuum advance has been removed.

Would anyone know why would this have been done, is there any advantage in fixing the mechanical advance?

Thanks in advance, Jeff

Usually done on a race tuned engine where the timing can be set for the narrower power band and economy is not an issue, or where the timing is altered by other (electronic) means.

Phil.

I think it would be done through ignorance !! A Race engine needs 30/34 degrees advance - and it is not possible to start a high compression A series with that sort of advance. Often the vacuum advance is eliminated in race engines - but the mechanical advance is very very necessary. I suppose it could have been some kind of electronic advance - with the dizzy simply handing the HT sparks out to the leads - but most electronic systems these days (Megajolt etc) eliminate the dizzy completely - the hole in the block is plugged off.