The Lotus Grand Tourers

Hi

Can anyone tell me what distributor should be fitted to my car. The one on it has a vacuum unit but apparently LCs shouldn't have a vacuum unit.

It's not running great. I spent last year working on bigger issues which are mostly solved. Its a bit difficult to start, doesn't idle great and is definitely down on power.

It did say at mot the emissions were a bit high

You can get the correct distributor here -

https://www.sjsportscars.com/parts-and- ... E9002F.htm

You could also use a programmable one like the 123

Would my car have come with points or electronic ignition. I've phoned a couple of places and getting conflicting information. Apparently mine shouldn't have he vacuum advance fitted but has. So presumably nas been replaced at some point.

All Excels had electronic ignition as standard.
It’s a Lucas constant energy system with an AB14 module mounted on the right inner wing. It was fitted to other cars eg Jags.
Note the coil is also specific to this system.

The AB14 is/was pretty common. Remove the cover, and it's an almost empty box. Inside is a GM HEI amplifier, one electrolytic capacitor, and one diode. The diode and capacitor are common electronic parts. The diode is pretty failure proof, but it's cheap to replace. Electrolytic capacitors tend to dry out and die of old age... and those in AB14s are all OLD by now. The capacitor & diode are common in everything from household sound systems to industrial electronics. Also easy and cheap to replace. Just notice that they are polarity sensitive, so put the new one in with the same wire lead polarity.

The GM HEI amplifier was common to virtually all GM cars back in the day. Besides North America, that includes Vauxhall in the UK, Opel in Germany, Isuzu in Japan, Holden in Australia... where else?? They were everywhere, and can be purchased separately in all of those places... and it's another simple install.

Or, just buy a new AB14 if you wish.

I'd be inclined to try placing the electrolytic capacitor alone first (maybe throw in a diode) just to see if that wouldn't kick-start the old AB14 first. Only if I had to, I would install a new GM HEI amplifier too... that constitutes a complete rebuild.

Regards,
Tim Engel

Some great information in that post Tim. Thanks.
Seems the AB14 gets blamed for a lot of issues, but generally they do seem quite reliable. Great to know whats inside though and how easy a reconditioning could be.

So it is easy to find by search, the info really needs to be under a title " AB 14 reconditioning" or similar.
Question for Admin : Can that be done or is it easiest to copy and post under a new heading.

Regards

Tony

For Monkeyzak.
I have an 85 LC and have recently changed the distributor for an SJSportscars distributor which has no vacuum advance mechanism.
All works fine.
The distributor for the LC is electronically triggered and has no mechanical points.
It does have a plastic Dog ring which can fail and costs nothing as a spare part. The result of a faulty Dog ring is misfiring.
Anyone renovating an old LC distributor is recommended to change this plastic ring, which sits underneath the advance centrifugal weights.

Dave the Cog