They don't have to be the same. In fact, after a lighter spring is installed
to bring in the advance quicker, the centrifugal system may begin to bounce
at high rpm. The 'fix' for this is to put one light small spring with one
larger stiff spring instead of two the same. The reasoning is that the light
spring allows the curve to come in quick untill the larger (longer) stiff
spring begins to stretch and provides more resistance as the cams reach the
end of their travel. This prevents the bounce. Since the two weight/spring
pairs are linked togather, they don't expand at different rates like you
might think they would with different springs. Of course a cleaner solution
would be to add weight too but I've never seen anyone go to the trouble.
If it ain't broke, Don't fix it. Someone probably recurved your distributor
to pep up the car a bit. Actually they could be the stock springs. I don't
know for a fact that they were the same size stock. As long as it all moves
freely and it works, I'd leave it.
Chris Reichle
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From: mgs-owner
To: mgs; rovernet; british-cars
Subject: Distributor Mechanical Advance Springs????
Date: Monday, May 06, 1996 6:18PM
Does anyone know if it's possible to order replacement springs for the
centrifugal weights inside Lucas distributors? When I opened mine up,
there were two different springs. I would think they'd be the same, eh?
Glen Wilson
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