Distributor cleaning, advice please

[tms996]

Looking for the best ways to clean up this Triumph distributor, been unused for at least 20 years and is intact but greasy with oil.
Don't want to immerse it in a parts washer but was wondering what would clean it up best before fitting new points?



Also any advice about replacing these with modern systems? I've seen some but they seem quite expensive.

[Turbobanana]

I used to work at an old fashioned garage where the proprietor would routinely use brake cleaner for stuff like this. He'd use it on carburettors too, and even supplement it with brake fluid sometimes. Always seemed to work fine.

[Decky_Q]

Spray it with "Elbow Grease" it's a cheap and effective degreaser, let it soak for an hour and then wipe it all down as best you can, then hit it with brake/parts/carb cleaner and that will remove the final film of oil.

[Huntsman]

Check the underside of the blue wire hasnt been rubbing on the points spring.

A Spitfire mk3 broke down on me once for that reason.

[//j17]

As others have said any degreaser will do the job to clean it up.

As for replacing with something modern, well that's a Delco Remy one with the mechanical tacho drive, so from something like a pre-1500 Spitfire. As such if the car has a techo. you'd need to swap that to an electric one (e.g. from a 1500 Spitfire). From there you can:
- Swap to a Lucas D25 (but might have a fight getting an appropriate advance curve).
- Swap to a 123 distributor (more expensive but giving you easier control over the advance curve and more accurate ignition timing).
- Swap to full electronic ignition, e.g. MegaJolt (more expensive again but even more accurate control of the timing).