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MG MGA - Is this a bad thing?

Or should I say how bad a thing is this? Notice that right above the yellow mark the collar is cracked away.

Its been running despite this damage.

[IMG]http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/tbm66/IMG_0363_1.jpg[/IMG]
Tysen

Oops how about this link

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g64/tbm66/IMG_0363_1.jpg
Tysen

Tysen. This is not all that uncommon. There is a thin lip on the Lucas 25D and older distributors onto which the distributor clamp tightens. Tighten a little too much and you crack the lip. Next owner comes along and tightens a little more because the cracked portion does not give a good indication of how tight the clamp is becoming. Then, you have chunks break away. The factory recognised this problem and made the rim solid on the Lucas 45D series distributors to prevent such damage.

You have several choices. The least expensive is to try and find a good distributor body, then build up a working dizzy using the best of the parts of the two.

The second is to switch to a Lucas 25D or 45D distributor having a curve approximating the original MGA curve.

The third thing that can be done is to get a really good welder to weld up the damaged area, then, turn it back to the correct outer diameter on the lathe.

Anyone who has this type of distributor should give some serious consideration to filling the void behind the rim with a good quality epoxy to provide additional support to the area the clamp fits to. JB Weld will work. Brownell's Acra Steel or Marine Tex is far better, however.

Your distributor should continue to function. If you clean the body very throughly, use a piece of tape to recreate the curve of the clamping surface and fill the void and missing section with Marine Tex or Acra Steel, it should be fully functional. Not as good as an undamaged unit which has had the rim filled with epoxy, but functional.

Les
Les Bengtson

This thread was discussed on 28/06/2006

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This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGA BBS is active now.