Distributor - vacuum advance/2 or 3 pin

Hi, I have a 3.9 1998 Disco 1. I've not owned it long and it's dire on acceleration. I've given the Vacuum advance a suck and can get any pressure so thats a good start.

My question is that all the Dizzy's i'm looking at are listed as '3pin' and older 3.5's are listed as needing a 2 to 3 pin conversion. With mine being so late, why would I only have 2 wires coming from the loom connector to the Dizzy? Therefore I've gotta get the conversion as listed for older 3.5's

Just about to order and just want the full 'ish' from you lads.

Thanks

Mark

landymangib said:

Hi, I have a 3.9 1998 Disco 1. I've not owned it long and it's dire on acceleration. I've given the Vacuum advance a suck and can get any pressure so thats a good start.

My question is that all the Dizzy's i'm looking at are listed as '3pin' and older 3.5's are listed as needing a 2 to 3 pin conversion. With mine being so late, why would I only have 2 wires coming from the loom connector to the Dizzy? Therefore I've gotta get the conversion as listed for older 3.5's

Just about to order and just want the full 'ish' from you lads.

Thanks

Mark

Click to expand...

Why replce the whole dizzy? If the vac advance is not working just replace the vac unit.

The reference to 3 pin or 2 pin relates to the ignition amplifier that is attached to the dizzy. I think the later ones are all 2 pin. The two wires you see going into the plug on your dizzy are probably a white wire (+12v ignition switched live) and a white with black stripe wire, (trigger from coil negative). On the 3 pin system I think there is a separate ground wire But I'm not familiar with that set up but you can but conversion kits I believe.

The other thing to watch out for is that the older dizzy has a different advance curve so it is important to make sure you get the right dizzy for your engine although I have a vague recollection that the advance curves are not that much different.

You can buy ignition amplifiers from most motor factors at sensible cost, don't forget to put silicon grease on the back of it before mounting.

Another thing you need to watch is that not all distributors will fit. I know the older dizzy has the vac unit and amplifier in slightly different positons so it doesn't fit; or at least that's what I found on my RRC when I wanted to do a substitution test with an old dizzy that was donated to me.

Thanks for the advice Kev, much appreciated. The vehicle has only done 40k miles so you're probably right about not bothering with the whole dizzy. I've just seen that you can buy online the dizzy which has the vacuum cap and rotar arm with it for 100 quid from a site called simonbb and paddocks want 45 quid just for the vacuum advance. thanks again