Why are dizzy caps that funny orange/brown colour?

[Huntsman]

As above.

Why are so many dizzy caps that funny orange-ish brown colour?

(For the kids of PH, a distributor (dissy) cap was found under the bonnet of older cars. You dont remember 4*? You dont know what a choke knob does? Oh.......sigh.)

[john_p]

This is the only dizzy I know



And it pains me to know that there will be people on here who don't know what it is

[HellDiver]

Default colour for the type of plastic used (Bakelite?) at a guess.

The Lucas ones on the old tractor we had were black, oddly enough.

[cobra kid]

Orange = Bosch IIRC from my parts dept work days.

[Huntsman]

cobra kid said:

Orange = Bosch IIRC from my parts dept work days.

Yes, defo a lot of the Bosh ones are orange.

[GingerWizard]

Huntsman said:

As above.

Why are so many dizzy caps that funny orange-ish brown colour?

(For the kids of PH, a distributor (dissy) cap was found under the bonnet of older cars. You dont remember 4*? You dont know what a choke knob does? Oh.......sigh.)

I believe its because its made of bakerlite. And that was a common colour. but i maybe wrong....

[Negative Creep]

Mine is black, as was the incorrect replacement I'd waited a week for from the local car shop

[gib6933]

Yep bakerlite.


A bit like fordite. No one will remember that

[SystemParanoia]

the one on my CVH sierra is black

[BelperJim]

The Bosch one on my Golf is the same orange colour as above.

[Slinky]

john_p said:

This is the only dizzy I know



And it pains me to know that there will be people on here who don't know what it is

I know!!!

[IROC-Z]

My dizzy cap is bright red, same as the car. Vrooom vroom!

[task]

the one on my V8 is blue

[havoc]

Huntsman said:

(For the kids of PH, a distributor (dissy) cap was found under the bonnet of older cars. You dont remember 4*? You dont know what a choke knob does? Oh.......sigh.)

"When I were a lad, all of PH were fields!"

[dilbert]

Phenolic can be made any colour. Naturally it's a light grey, I think.

I don't know why, but heavy duty phenolic insulators are often that browny orange colour.

The colourant is a dye. Perhaps you would find that in the technical specs different dyes have different electrical characteristics. TBH I think that's a pretty long shot.

[Starleteer]

Huntsman said:

As above.

Why are so many dizzy caps that funny orange-ish brown colour?

(For the kids of PH, a distributor (dissy) cap was found under the bonnet of older cars. You dont remember 4*? You dont know what a choke knob does? Oh.......sigh.)

cuz they iz dizzy bled innit

[Arese]

Slinky said:

john_p said:

This is the only dizzy I know



And it pains me to know that there will be people on here who don't know what it is

I know!!!

Me too. Treasure Island Dizzy was superb!

[NiceCupOfTea]

Huntsman said:

As above.

Why are so many dizzy caps that funny orange-ish brown colour?

(For the kids of PH, a distributor (dissy) cap was found under the bonnet of older cars. You dont remember 4*? You dont know what a choke knob does? Oh.......sigh.)

The choke is for hanging your handbag on!

[dilbert]

I had another thought.

I would imagine that the original prototypes for these distributor caps were made in Paxolin. This would be a much better material for making a one-off made on manual machines.

That material would end up with that browny orange colour after machining. I wouldn't have thought that anyone bothered to specify a colour for the Bakelite production model. They just made it the same, but in a different material.

Again, it's another long shot, but perhaps.

Edited by dilbert on Friday 16th April 13:35

[r-kid]

Arese said:

Slinky said:

john_p said:

This is the only dizzy I know



And it pains me to know that there will be people on here who don't know what it is

I know!!!

Me too. Treasure Island Dizzy was superb!

Me three.

to the OP: mines currently black but the uprated dizzy's have red caps.