Distributor interchange

[braveheart 3]

Morning Gents
Does any one know if v8 wedge distributor will fit a Chim.
Have had a nightmare weekend trying to change one on my Dads Chim and need to establish the new unit is faulty.
Was going to swop my wedge one over into to it to see if it will run.
Many thanks
Braveheart

[KKson]

I think mechanically they should be the same, although not too sure if the oil pump connection will be the identicaL? Electrically however the Wedge had a couple of different types, one with the ignition amplifier remote and the more normal unit with it bolted to the side of the distributor. The other thing to watch for is the orientation of the vacuum advance and ignition amplifier. On the Wedges they were offset so approximately 120 degree apart, which allowed rotation of the distributor for timing. I had a new unit last year from PowerSpark that had the vacuum and amp 180 degrees apart and there was no room for adjustment. That distributor failed after 7 weeks so just because something is new does not guarantee it will work.

[braveheart 3]

Many thanks will have a compare and see if viable !

[braveheart 3]

Many thanks it worked !
Enough to prove that the " new " TVR parts one is duff.
The quality of these is appalling and I would advise any one wanting to replace to look for an original Lucas unit if they can find one.
All the best
Braveheart

[KKson]

braveheart 3 said:

Many thanks it worked !
Enough to prove that the " new " TVR parts one is duff.
The quality of these is appalling and I would advise any one wanting to replace to look for an original Lucas unit if they can find one.
All the best
Braveheart

Fantastic, glad that it worked. It was the electronic "trigger" that failed on the PowerSpark one. To be fair they did send a new pick up free of charge but I sourced a good second hand unit that has behaved faultlessly ever since. One thing to watch on the new distributors is the advance. Again on the PS unit it advanced way more than the original unit with both the vacuum advance and fly weights. If I set the timing "correct" at 8 degrees BTDC then when I drove the car it advanced too much and resulted in pinking. I spoke to PS over this and they suggested that a tack weld could be added inside the dissy to limit the advance. Surprisingly I didn't like the sound of this, hence the good second hand unit. I have spoken to V8 Developments and they have previously "tuned" their distributors by carefully adjusting the counter weights by grinding off metal until the correct advance is achieved.

[mrzigazaga]

Sounds like it might be worth getting the ole one rebuilt...

[RCK974X]

Interesting aside -

The V8 and V6 must be similar in that they really need a different advance curve for unleaded gas, as well as all the different cams used on V8 engines.

May be a good topic to add for sharing info ?

I spent a while fiddling with mine (fnarr...) before it stopped pinking but didn't feel too 'flat' ...

Plus I know that zig had a valve recession issue on his V6 - mine seems OK so far....