Wilsons Sandbox

Hey, Joe, Why have I never bumped into you at Beaulieu? ( Gerry Goguen either, for that matter!) Regards, David Lodge joecurto@aol.com wrote:

Mark if things are the same at Beulieu as they were when I was going most of those Lucas Magnetos were for agricultural use, I always steered away from them do to the lack of parts, Arnolt in the 1950s used to sell one for T types, good for us that most Lucas bases will fit most of our cars, I used to buy any Vertex/Scintilla magneto with a Lucas base and then have them converted for our timing specs. I have run a vertex unit for 10 years without any problem (once but had it repaired) .

Contact me for the name of some rebuilders

Joe Curto Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.

G'day Joe. Magnetos.... I've also been fiddling with these things for quite a few years now, having one fitted to my blown TC . I started with a BTH unit which had a few problems of its own. A cheap Lucas 4VRS from a swap-meet was next tried. This is probably the type you referred to as 'for agricultural use'. The '4' prefix of course denotes the number of cylinders - 'V' for vertical mounting and 'S' for static or limited rev range (a tractor or low revving motor operating at mostly constant revs. This unit has an impulse mechanism in the base to facilitate starting. Obviously the timing graph was non-existant, it produced plenty of fat sparks and, naturally, engine overheating. Another unit - a 4VRA ('A' for automatic) was obtained from a Nuffield tractor. The base contains bob weights etc just like an overgrown distributor. Take care here as Nuffield produced TWO petrol-engined tractors with one engine operating clockwise and the other anti-clockwise. Trust the Poms to confuse things! Just for variety they threw in a diesel model as well! Now here's the problem.... Mention is made in various tuning manuals of the 4VRA -Lucas part no. E.N.M 2002 having "a suitable advance curve for the XPAG engine". I have posted a number of requests for technical specs - weight of springs etc. to duplicate this "suitable advance curve" all without success. I'm doing so again here now. In the absence of any printed reference material, following a complete overhauls and rebuild we have trial and errored our way on the dyno to getting the thing to perform at its optimum on the TC. Even with all the past headaches I still consider the effort worthwhile. Running properly a 'maggy produces spark impressive enough to start a bushfire on a rainy day. The only way to fly! Jeff TC3306

----- Original Message ----- [b]From:[/b] joecurto@aol.com [b]To:[/b] mark_sellick@mrifast.net ; mg-tabc@yahoogroups.com [b]Sent:[/b] Friday, September 14, 2001 7:13 AM [b]Subject:[/b] Re: [mg-tabc] Magnetos Mark if things are the same at Beulieu as they were when I was going most of those Lucas Magnetos were for agricultural use, I always steered away from them do to the lack of parts, Arnolt in the 1950s used to sell one for T types, good for us that most Lucas bases will fit most of our cars, I used to buy any Vertex/Scintilla magneto with a Lucas base and then have them converted for our timing specs. I have run a vertex unit for 10 years without any problem (once but had it repaired) . Contact me for the name of some rebuilders Joe Curto Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.