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MG MGA - MGA distributor

I have distributor 40510B BN238 159 Someone damaged the vacuum advance aluminium housing (cracked it) do not ask how since I do not know. What I am looking for is an information as what distributor to get. There is few on Ebay and I can transfer the guts from what I have to a new one. Are the distributors, in reference to the aluminium housing size, the same? Should I avoid some of them? There is several 25D. Will they do?
Martin
Martin

Martin

My 1600 had the wrong distributor which apparently gave the totally wrong advance. Lucas Technical advised me that the correct distributor was "40510".

Obtained a reconditioned one from Holden Vintage & Classic here in the UK and it was advised as such.

Not sure what all the other numbers mean, but would appear to be irrelevant.

Cheers

Pete
Pete Tipping

Martin

I copied this URL from a thread a few months ago. Something in it may be of use to you:

http://www.jcna.com/library/tech/tech0015.html

Steve
Steve Gyles

The fuel we all use now is vastly different, so chasing the exact distributor curve is not always as important as it once was.
Not to mention the springs become weak with age and the curve opens out much faster.

There is a bunch of distributor stuff I have added to my site here, including a link to the lucas database.

http://freespace.virgin.net/marka.hester/RaceStuff.htm

Cheers <MARK>
Mark Hester

Martin,

MGA's used DM2 distributors. If you look at the top near the fine adjustment nut you'll see it in raised letters/numbers. The numbers stamped on the side tell you what model car it was intended for, engine, application, etc., but are pretty much useless now what with all the engine swapping and rebuilding and what have you over the years. If you can find an old DM2 body you can have it re-bushed and then drop in your old springs, cam weights, and vaccuum advance.

If you can't find a DM2 body the other Lucas distributors such as the 25D are dimensionally the same and the guts can be swapped, but I doubt that the DM2's vaccuum unit will fit into a later unit's housing. So that might be a problem finding a vaccuum unit to suit your car.

University Motors offers a rebuild service. They may be able to find an MGA unit and rebuild it using the guts from your old distributor. John Twist has LOTS of spares lying around.

I can reccomend Advance Auto parts for selling a good rebuilt 25D distributor around $70, unfortunately there's no way of knowing if the rebuilt unit will have the advance curve to match your car.
Mark

Martin, do you need an entire distributor, or do you just need the vacuum advance replaced? The 25D vacuum advance will work on your distributor. It is phsically the same size, although is noticeably different in appearance.

The rest of "the guts" from a 25D will NOT fit into your distributor. The DM2 is original in design and the 25D is a vast improvement in reliability and especially performance.

This website will allow you to look up 25D distributor curves by model number and find one close to the unit in your car. Look under "distributor curves."
http://www.teglerizer.com/home.html

The 40897 or the 41155 models in the 25D would be a good replacement. Or email me and I can rebuild your unit (super inexpensive), minus the vac advance and recurve it to match the original specs. I may even have a used vac advance that's clsoe to your original.
Jeff Schlemmer

This thread was discussed between 27/11/2005 and 29/11/2005

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