The V8 Owners Forum -

Hi, can anyone help get hold of the roll pin holding the Lucas distributor drive gear in place on a Rover V8?

Converting a Mallory MBI drive gear to a Lucas style as the current gear is looking tired. The Mallory drive gear seems to be unavailable and uses a much smaller roll pin so I can’t swap it over to the Lucas gear.

5mm roll pins seem too big and 3/16” too small, is it an odd special size?

Beginning to think I may have to buy a scrap unit to salvage the pin.

Tried Real Steel and a couple of distributor specialist without success. No problem getting hold of the gear just no pins.

Thanks in advance.

Try searching for roll pins, there's a lot of companies making them and some do bespoke sizes if it turns out that's what you need.

Thanks Ratwing.
Hoping someone can tell me what the size should be if all else fails

What size is the actual hole ?

I think that's how they are sized, not by the diameter of the pin itself which would naturally be larger.

Haven’t got anything other than a ruler so can’t very accurate on the hole in the gear that’s already predrilled - just know from offering up a 3/16” drill that is too small but a 5 mm catches.
I think the pin theory is the hole shouldn’t be greater than the nominal pin size so somewhere between the two would be right.
Next easily available imperial drill is I think 7/32 which is greater than 5mm and I would have though Lucas worked in imperial.

Bit of a conundrum but I’m sure somewhere on the forum someone will have a spare distributor and may be able to correctly size for me.

Thanks to anyone who’s looking and thinking about the problem.

Thanks for suggesting having a look at Rimmers - lots of distributor spares but no pins.

I’ve looked at quite a lot of Rover and Land Rover sites for spares but not come across the pin. I think the assumption is you already have the pin and just need a new drive gear to use with the old pin.

Why not simply drill out (by the smallest amount) to a pin size you can get? But IIRC I found a spare pin in my selection box of them, so not a special.

Stagrover wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 17, 2021 8:02 pm

Haven’t got anything other than a ruler so can’t very accurate on the hole in the gear that’s already predrilled

Given that verniers are cheaper than a pint of beer there's no reason not to have a pair in your toolbox:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/353606580040 ... w&LH_BIN=1

Found a helpful chart on the Spirol website of pin sizes and hole variations.

A 3/16” pin is ok for a hole up to just over 5mm so going on my theory that Lucas would be imperial that would seem to be the size to go for in the absence of anyone having a definitive spec.

Thanks for the advice and I’ll put the vernier on my Christmas list - you can never have too many tools.

John

The roll pin size is 3/16" x 1".

Thanks Ged

Stagrover wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 18, 2021 8:58 am

Thanks for suggesting having a look at Rimmers - lots of distributor spares but no pins.

I’ve looked at quite a lot of Rover and Land Rover sites for spares but not come across the pin. I think the assumption is you already have the pin and just need a new drive gear to use with the old pin.

Rimmer list a load of roll pins, just not a lot of info on their sizes.

It's just a pin though, buy a set of them and something will fit.

Stagrover wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 18, 2021 7:54 pm

Thanks Ged

You're welcome. Just in case you haven't already done so Google 3/16" x 1" roll pin. You'll be spoilt for choice.

Thanks everyone, I’ve settled on 3/16” as the way to go and ordered some. Hopefully will be sorted and back on the road soon.