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172 Classic& SportsCarDecember 2015
No soonerhadthe Novemberissue
goneto pressthanthe minorstutter
on pullingawaydecidedto reap-
pear– afterit seemedto havegone
witha newrotorarmandcap.I also
noticedthattheaccelerationwasa
tadsluggish,andthattheengine
wasnotas smoothas it shouldbe.
I initiallytriedtweakingthe
carburettor, but youcanonlyadjust
the idlemixtureandspeedsettings
becausetheLandiehasa Weber.
Anythingmorethanthatrequires
youto fit a differentjet. Therewas
no realchange,so I wonderedif the
timinghadslippeda little.
I hada fewdaysoff andhadleft
my timinglightin theC&SCwork-
shop,so I nippedoverto seePhil
Cottrellat nearbyClassicJaguar
Replicasto borrowhis strobe.
With thelighton thepulley, we
noticedthatthetimingwasdefi-
DIZZYHASTW0
HEADS SPINNING
Land-Rover
SeriesIIA
Run byMartinPort
OwnedsinceMay 2013
Total mileage41,075
MilessinceNovember
report 1630
Latestcosts£91THANKSTO
ΔClassicJaguarReplicas: 0118
971 2091;www.jaguarreplicas.com
ΔAccuspark: 01442 243688;
http://www.accuspark.co.uknitelyout.Forgoodmeasure,Phil
poppedthe distributorcapoff only
to findit fullof moreof thenasty
metallic‘dust’ thatI’d clearedout
the previousmonth.
Hisfirstassumptionwasthe
sameas minehadbeen– thatthe
rotorarmhadbeengrindingaway
at the capcontacts. A closerinspec-
tionshowedthatthewearwasn’t
outof theordinaryand,anyway,
I hadreplacedboththe capandthe
rotorarmwitha matchedpairfrom
DunsfoldLandRover. So I was
fairlycertainthattheywerebothI wasimmediatelyon thephone
to ordera replacementfromAccu-
sparkanda new25D– at justunder
£60withits electronicsalready
installed – seemed like the best
option,particularlywiththe Good-
woodRevivalloomingthatweek.
Fittingit wasstraightforward
andI locatedit so thatthetiming
wasroughlyas it hadbeen,before
returningto Phil’s andcheckingit
witha strobe.Theproblemis, of
course,thattimingan oldLandie
shouldbe donestaticallyusingthe
marksseenthroughtheflywheel
housinginspectionplateandwitha
bulbacrossthepoints.Butthat’s a
lot morecomplexif it has electronic
ignition.With thatin mind,I set the
timingusingthe strobeto 6º before
TDC and then fettled it by ear. It is
nowquite advanced, but there is no
pinkingunderloadandtheengine
idledsweetlyenoughto balancea
poundcoinon the rockercover!
Ty pically, whentighteningthe
dizzyclamp,everythingsuddenly
wentlooseas thestretchedbolt
shearedin themiddle,buta bit of
scrabblingaroundin toolboxesand
twominuteswitha hacksaw
resultedin a suitablereplacement.
Timingit empiricallyhasalso
virtuallyeliminatedthe poppingon
a trailingthrottlethathadalways
plaguedthisIIA.I’dpreviously
thoughtthatit wasa by-productof
theleanrunningthatis oftena
defaultsettingfor a Weberconver-
sion. In a bid to tackle this, I’d been
on thelook-outfor a SolexPA10 as
originallyfittedandtrackedone
downvia the Series2 Clubforum.It
waspresentableaftera quickclean
up,butI intendto haveit profes-
sionallyrebuiltbeforefittingit.
Thatwillhopefullyresultin morepowerandimprovedrunning.
Thedrivedownto theRevival
wasa breezethanksto an earlystart
andtheIIAcertainlywasn’t alone.
Therewereplentyin the CarShow
andevenmoreon trackas 48 Series
Land-Roverstookpart intheofficial
celebrationsof the Solihullmarque.correct.Onetwistof the rotorarm,
however, resultedin a sharpintake
of breathas the shaftgroundits way
aroundwitha jerkymotion.
Thecausebecameobviousonce
we’d takenoutthedistributorand
removedtheelectronicignition
partsplusthebaseplate.The
springsweren’t tensioningthe bob
weights,so theyhadbeenflungout
by centrifugalforceintothe inside
of thedistributorcasing– eating
awayat themetalas theytriedto
spin.Well, at leastwe knewwhere
the filingswerecomingfrom.Phil Cottrelldismantlesthe distributor Bob weightshad beenscoringdizzycaseAccuspark25D solved the timingissues Solex PA10 carburettorwill replaceWeber Liningup amongthe Jaguarsat GoodwoodPort’s IIA makes the most
of the late summersun,
with the enginerunning
muchbetterafterits
timinghad beensorted