The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

just some "positive" words from my side about the constant "bashing" to the Delco Dizzy:

The same type of Dizzy was used by Lancia in its Fulvia.

And Lancia egneineers were known not doing compromises, they always looked for THEIR best solution...therefore Lancias are often quite "expensive" to maintain cars, as they dont share lots of parts from other cars. (not Fiat, neither Alfa)

in the past i was a Fulvia owner...i used an electronic module from Simon BBC fo the Delco Dizzy...even the dizzy needs to come out and the drive-gear needs to be removed....its still a simple, straight-forward and quick job to convert from points to electronic.

this said: since around 10 years i have fitted such hall-effect kits to several dizzys, mainly into Ford crossflow engines and the said Fulvia....never ever had any failure or trouble afterwards...even not with those (cheap) electronic repro-lucas-dizzy´s from BBC.


and i´m quite sure that all those (cheap) electroic kits and the repro-dizzy´s are from asian origin.

so dont be so negative about the delco....

by the way: all the "italian" Dizzy´s from Marelli fitted to Alfa Giulia, Spider, GTV and Lancia A110, Montecarlo, Fiat 124 etc were sharing the same technology as the Delco:

Big rotor, underneath the centrifugal advance and underneath the advance, the points. so nothing exclusively reserved for the Delco.

comparing the Marelli Dizzy from that period with the Delco-Unit you could think that one copied from the other.

I will rise to the bait. Apart from the fact points are tricky to change, my gripe is that on the 2 engines I have had in my posession (a TR7 engine I popped in my toledo, and my recent 1850) both had knackered delcos. Admittedly both engines had done significant mileage, the 1850 appears to have a genuine 110k on it (though the engine has been reconditioned, and obviously the dizzy was left)
The wear is in teh weights and pins. They become so worn that you end up with virtually zero mechanical advance. My old one was "fixed" by buying a cheap but new saab delco dizzy, modifying teh new baseplate to give the correct mechanical advance, and then playing with springs to get a sensible advance curve.
Or maybe I have been very unlucky with my 100% knackered delcos?
But my advice on any delco equipped slant 4 is to check the mechanical advance is fully working.

In spitfires they appear to fare somewhat better.

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Clive Senior
Brighton

but you cannot make delco "responsible" that somebody forgot a refurb , as its lifetime came to its end? any other dizzy like lucas, bosch, marelli would have shown similar wear.

this said: changing some advance springs is not a huge , neither expensive job.


jumping back to Marelli: Marelli´s design (identical to Delco´s) was fitted to nearly all 70ies and 80ies cars from Italy...and nobody complained about the points laying underneath the advance-device..... if such a design would have been so bad, nobody would have used it?

obviously, the quality of points was much better during that period and therefore the lifetime longer....but today you will fit an electronic module with all its advantages.

I disagree. I have never had a Lucas that has been worn in the same way. A friends Herald has done over 300k now, the dizzy is still OK.
There is something about the design on the slant delcos. New springs don't work (I tried) the pins/weights wear and no new ones are available. On a refurb they may machine/bush/repin?

When working the delcos are fine. The problem is the lack of longevity. OK, I have limited experience, but 2 out of 2 with the exact same issue is not good. I wonder how many 1850s out there are being driven around with the owners assuming their engines are just not very lively. With my car, when I changed teh timing from 10 degrees to 20ish (at idle) the car drove much better. It dodn't like any more advance when pulling away from standstill.

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Clive Senior
Brighton

maybe we should check if wear parts could be swapped from Marelli? as said, the Design of the delco and mareli are unqiue compared to any other european dizzy existing (Bosch, Lucas, Fomoco, Ducelier) and i dont think that the similariites of Marelli & Declo sharing both this unique design is coincidentally.

I'm also a fan of the Delco dizzy as fitted to the 1850. It is a masterpiece of high voltage engineering ! Long anti-tracking lengths for the sparks in the cap and long lengths on the rotor arm as well. I've never come across a faulty Delco cap or rotor arm. O.K. the points are rather more difficult but they give you early warning of needing reseting as the rev; counter bounces around.
But I have a Lumenition Optronic ignition. That is fit-and-forget and the electronic box can be mounted remotely from the engine heat.
I've only changed the advance springs for some on an Auction site. They work well.

Tony.