Distributor broke, and again... and again

Hi,

I don't have my discovery anymore because it kept breaking the distributor. It had the original Land Rover part for several years, then eventually that wasn't working fully, so I replaced it with a Japanese model (for the Disco) as Land Rover wanted over £550 for one, ie half the price of the car! Anyway, after about 3 weeks it broke it, so got it replaced under warranty. 3 months later the next one goes and I cracked and got rid of it.
Anyone got any idea what caused this? It's something I'd just like to finally get to the bottom of. 3.9V8 engine, Manual.

What part of the distributor kept breaking ?

The V8 man said:

What part of the distributor kept breaking ?

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The module

in what way did it break,just failed,you get little trouble from distributors

jamesmartin said:

in what way did it break,just failed,you get little trouble from distributors

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Yeah it would just go, once on a roundabout, engine perfectly warm and normal. And then the second while cruising down a street.. That time though, it restarted a couple of times and then failed shortly after.

TCubed said:

The module

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Hi
My original 1992 module failed, it would cut out when idling! supposed to be a common fault with age and heat.

I found a site which showed an ignition module upgrade (now gone) using using a chevy HEI module, which is then mounted away from the engine on an alloy plate to act as a heat sink.

The local parts supplier sold me a Trident brand module (Aussie made)which was good for 6 Months then failed the replacement lasted about the same time.

Module No.3 An intermotor part (UK made) is still going strong fingers crossed.

It's frustrating for sure but i'd rather tow my disco than drive a jappa lol

whos idea?! said:

Hi
My original 1992 module failed, it would cut out when idling! supposed to be a common fault with age and heat.

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Ah... Does heat kill them? Because the other thing that didn't work was the cooling system, which was highly temperamental?

they need to be able to disapate heat

TCubed said:

Ah... Does heat kill them? Because the other thing that didn't work was the cooling system, which was highly temperamental?

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Heat is an issue, I belive early disco moduels were mounted by the dizzy then moved onto the dizzy (nice hot spot).
so mounting it away from the engine helps as it generates it's own heat aswell, I mounted mine on a 5mm thick alloy plate after running it for a few minutes with bonnet open the plate was quite warm/hot

whos idea?! said:

Heat is an issue, I belive early disco moduels were mounted by the dizzy then moved onto the dizzy (nice hot spot).
so mounting it away from the engine helps as it generates it's own heat aswell, I mounted mine on a 5mm thick alloy plate after running it for a few minutes with bonnet open the plate was quite warm/hot

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That is really annoying if it could have been as simple as that Ah well, all part of the learning experience I guess.

TCubed said:

That is really annoying if it could have been as simple as that Ah well, all part of the learning experience I guess.

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It's quite difficult to diagnose, I did all the usual checks to see if it was fuel or spark at fault.
I put a spark plug in the coil lead which did spark, but would not start after checking the coil resistance, dizzy pick up resistance, voltage supply, fuel supply I got the module checked sure enough no out put signal. Don't understand why coil still sparked? but wouldn't fire but thats a mystery for another life lol

I found the forum that discussed the module upgrade, www.V8forum.co.uk look for posting by sticky ignition upgrade