Allegro Club International

[Chris Williamson]

If I had any hair left I would be tearing it out with sheer frustration at the problems I am having trying to get Brian the VP working.
In a moment of madness in late 2007 I fitted the electonic ignition kit as featured elsewhere in this Electrical section on the forum. In the advert on the website it was hailed as simple to fit, true, and needed no modifications.
Shortly after Brian was mothballed for the best part of a year, only re-emerging for the NEC show.
All seemed well then, and he went back into storage over the winter, coming out in February. Started fine, ran around the block OK so I took him a mile or so to a tyre shop. The return was a nightmare, popping, lurching, no power. I put it straight back in the garage and sought advice which pointed to a shot coil. Sure enough replacing it with a new one restored normal driving.

Fast forward to last Saturday, transport event at Blooms. Got there fine, on return symptoms returned , lurching, popping, no power. An hour later all seemed well so I decided to try the 2 miles to home,but half a mile later - - . AA man who towed me home found coil red hot, said I needed a 12volt coil suitable for EI
So today I bought one, connected everything up, ran engine 15 seconds, symptoms returned, EI unit melted!! Stripped them out, inserted spare EI unit, only got as far as switching on ignition, that burnt out too!!
So I have 2 useless electronic ignition modules, 1 new, 1 nearly coils that could be scrap for all I know and a distributor with the mounting pin for points cut off so is also next to useless as it cant be refitted with mechanical points.
To top it all I then found the "new" vacuum unit I put on at the same time as the EI unit is also defective, is it any wonder I just want to go into the garage and scream at the top of my voice!!!

Does anyone have a used but good distibutor, possibly a 45D4 as fitted to 1980 1.5 e series engine, or a knackered one with a mounting pin on it , (assuming that part is fairly easy to change over) and has anybody got a spare vacuum unit too, again new or a good secondhand one they would also sell?

[Chris Williamson]

Once the throbbing veins in my temples had subsided and the red mist lifted I remembered someone I had dealt with in the past, "The Distributor Doctor", (check his website.)
I called him up, and within a few minutes had the distributor in front of me, vacuum and baseplate removed and being packaged up to send to him for replacement. Still costing me £19.50 for the baseplate, about £15 for the vacuum plus postage but it may just save the day.
Will Brian be at the AGM Sunday, we will see?

[Colin T]

Oh dear, not good at all! IIRC one of the posters on the original thread had problems which were solved with returning to the original set up.

I was thinking about electronic ignition but may go for a more expensive set up with a money-back-if-you're-not-entirely-happy guarantee.
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Hell has frozen over...... the car formally known as 'Heap' is back on the road!

[Mike Dean]