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Perpetuating The Mystique

To: Triumphs Mailing List <triumphs@autox.team.net>
Subject: Perpetuating The Mystique
From: Pete & Aprille Chadwell <pandachadwell@mac.com>
Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2002 15:58:55 -0800
My dad coined the phrase 'perpetuating the mystique' after listening 
to people describe the difficulty of performing certain repairs or 
maintenance chores on, in particular, British cars when in actuality 
(based on his own personal experience) the operations in question 
were really not very difficult and certainly were not based in rocket 
science or black magic.  My own experience supports this observation, 
as well, and it's not limited to automobiles at all.  (computers 
represent a hotbed for 'perpetuating the mystique')  The owner of a 
repair shop, for example, might want to inflate the difficulty of a 
project either to pad his bill or to encourage a potential customer 
to let him to the work as opposed to the owner doing the work 
themselves.  Or a car owner might do this as a way of serving his own 
ego.  For example, "I rebuilt my carburettors and man, was it ever 
hard.  (Translated: "Damn, I must really be a good mechanic!")

So what?  Well, I'm trying to make a decision about my TR6's 
distributor and I'm getting some conflicting input about the 
difficulty of rebuilding a distributor.  A local British car mechanic 
makes the whole process out to be relatively difficult, citing the 
critical nature of getting advance curves just right, etc.  He kinda 
makes it sound like there's a little black magic involved.  Having 
just finished rebuilding the gearbox in my TR6, I must admit that I 
find this a little difficult to believe, and I wonder if maybe he's 
just 'perpetuating the mystique.'

To my feeble brain, it would appear that to simply R & R the bushings 
in a distributor would have little or no effect on the advance curve, 
except possibly to remove play that may have altered the curve 
slightly from spec.  It appears to me that the only thing that 
determines the advance curve would be the springs which are attached 
to the weights, and that if you reinstalled the same springs after 
replacing the bushings, (assuming that you had to remove the springs 
to begin with) you would have the same advance curve that you started 
with.  I wouldn't think you'd ever have any reason to replace the 
weights themselves, but I guess if you did, it might have an effect 
on the advance curve if they didn't weigh the same as the originals. 
But beyond that, how could the advance curve be changed to any 
extent?  How could this be that complicated?

Bottom line question is, is there anything about rebuilding a Lucas 
distributor that would require more than the 'average' mechanical 
aptitude and experience?  I realize that replacing the bushings 
presents an obstacle for most 'backyard mechanics' since most of us 
don't have access to certain machinist equipment, but could the 
re-assembly of something with so relatively few moving parts really 
be that critical?  It sure doesn't seem like it to me, but I'll defer 
to the collective wisdom of the list, as usual, 'cuz God knows I've 
been surprised before!

Thanks, as always!

-- 
Pete Chadwell
1973 TR6

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