Page 1 of 1

Distrubor High-Lift cam recognition.

Posted: Wed Jun 26, 2019 1:21 am
by Bill Ritson
TC 9981 has had an unusual history in that it appears to have spent the first 40 years of its existence on rubber plantations in Malaysia, where, I would imagine, spares were hard obtain and local ingenuity was required to keep it of the road. (The history file also indicates that occasional visits to a gunsmith were also necessary: Lord knows why!)
Among many relatively minor alterations, the original engine was replaced with one built with a 24445 block which could quite possibly have come from a TD. The engine number appears to have been obliterated.
My problem is that I have invariably set the points to 11 thou and the plugs to 21 thou as per the TC instruction manual. However I have found that the points seem to need cleaning and adjusting every 1000 miles, and only last about 3000 miles before they become so severely pitted that they required replacement. I am wondering whether the distributor is from a TD type engine and if so whether it would be fitted with have a High-Lift cam. If so, should the points be set to 15 thou and plugs to 25 thou?
Can anyone tell me HOW to discover firstly whether the distributor is a TD type and secondly whether it has a High-Lift cam fitted.
Kind regards, Bill Ritson.

Re: Distrubor High-Lift cam recognition.

Posted: Wed Jun 26, 2019 2:07 am
by cdrolshagen
Hi Bill,
have a look here - http://www.mg-tabc.org/library/distributor.htm
cheers Carl

Re: Distrubor High-Lift cam recognition.

Posted: Wed Jun 26, 2019 10:41 am
by jddevel
You have considered the condenser I suppose?

Re: Distrubor High-Lift cam recognition.

Posted: Wed Jun 26, 2019 11:52 am
by Steve Simmons
I agree, my first thought was a bad condenser causing the pitting. Also be sure to lubricate the cam lobes if you haven't already.