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TR6 Distributor: Advance Springs

To: Triumphs Mailing List <triumphs@autox.team.net>
Subject: TR6 Distributor: Advance Springs
From: Pete & Aprille Chadwell <pandachadwell@mac.com>
Date: Fri, 8 Feb 2002 09:23:30 -0800
References: <007601c1ae80$98bdff80$0200000a@desktop>
Triumph Experts:

It's been a busy week and I haven't had much time for progress on my 
distributor troubles.  This morning I noticed something, however.

How easy should it be to twist the ends of the distributor shafts (in 
opposite directions) to feel the advance mechanism working?  If I 
hold one end of the shaft and try to twist the other in either 
direction, I can hardly get the thing to budge.  The upper part of 
the shaft should twist relative to the main shaft, and I would have 
thought it would twist easier than this one does.  I seriously don't 
think I'm able to twist it at all.  If I am, it's not twisting very 
much.

Second question is about the advance springs.  Looking inside the 
distributor body at the advance mechanism, I see there are two 
springs.  However, in my distributor, one of the springs appears to 
be a much lighter spring than the other.  One spring is made of 
heavier wire with a larger coil diameter, and as I look at it right 
now it is coil-bound.  (the coils are touching each other)  The other 
spring is of lighter wire and a smaller coil diameter and the coils 
have plenty of space between them (not coil-bound).  As I look at the 
mechanism, I cannot think of any reason why these springs should not 
be identical to each other.  Yet, quite obviously, they are VASTLY 
different.

What does this all have to do with my cracked rotors?  Maybe nothing. 
But could it be that a problem with the centrifugal advance mechanism 
could create a situation that causes the rotor's orbit to expand 
enough to touch the terminals inside the cap only under certain 
circumstances?  If this were possible, it could explain why I can't 
get the rotor to come anywhere near the terminals while holding the 
dizzy in my hand, and yet I see evidence of light contact on the 
terminals, as if the rotor HAS been rubbing the terminals when it was 
on the car.  I can't personally imagine such a thing, but I've got 
some conflicting circumstances here and I need to find a way to 
reconcile them.  That might require more imagination than I have!

Does this give anyone any ideas?

-- 
Pete Chadwell
1973 TR6

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