Hi
Today I tried to install MSD distributor in my 3.5 RV8 but the gear from old lucas dist. is to small for new one.
Do I need some special gear for MSD Pro billet distributor or this one from lucas should fit ?
I ordered this one
I did not even know that MSD did a dizzy for the RV8, I thought that they would only do them for Ford and Chevvy engines.
EDIT...mind you the link does say Buick 215!
Anyway if you do manage to get it to fit you will have to make sure that the drive gear is the right distance 'down the hole'. In order to get it to fit the shaft you may have to get the shaft turned down on a lathe. Getting the gear bored out might cause it to crack.
You can probably trigger the MSD unit with the pickup from the standard Lucas dizzy, you could get rid of the ignitor box on the side of the Lucas dizzy. I run a programable MSD, I use a Lucas dizzy which has had all of the internals removed, it does not run with bob weights as the advance curve is programed in via a laptop. My dizzy does run with the MSD pickup inside the Lucas dizzy on a homemade base plate, it is triggered by the standard Lucas trigger wheel. I did this because I could not be bothered working out which way to connect the Lucas pickup to the MSD unit, you will have to try it both ways round, one way will work much better than the other way!
MSD dizzy is setup for the p5-p6 engine that has a different oil pump drive. You need to cut the tooth off the end of the shaft, put your gear on and drill THE hole for the pin. You need to get the length right and also the hole for the pin. If it is even slightly out the gear will break when you tap the pin in.
katanaman wrote:It's is the gear he will be drilling.
The same thing applies. I've never had to drill holes in any of the gears, there's always one there already. Both of the gears in his pic have the hole pre-drilled.
I think the confusion that has arisen is this: If you want to fit an SD1 oil pump gear to a P5B/P6B retaining the P5B/P6B distributor, then you need to cut the tang from the distributor so the SD1 gear will go up far enough for the roll pin to go through to hold it in place. If you do the conversion the other way around, then the P6B gear will fit the SD1 distributor, but you won't have any oil pressure because there isn't a tang to drive the pump. Enter the custom gear which will fit the SD1 distributor and has a hole there for the roll pin to retain it. It is longer than the P6B gear at the bottom, but doesn't appear to have the oil pump drive though it, which involves drilling and fitting a roll pin to drive the pump. Hardly fit for purpose.
In the original posting, if he wants to fit the distributor on the left, as a direct replacement for the one on the right, then he needs to remove the gear from the one on the right, cut the tang down on the bottom of the distributor on the left, and then fit the gear from the distributor on the right to the distributor on the left, and then if he had oil pressure before, he'll have it afterwards.. If he wants a new gear, he just needs a new one for an SD1.
I know that the shaft from msd must be shortened. The problem is the shaft diameter, it is 0,3 mm bigger than lucas distributor . Thats why Im confused because there is no way to put gear from lucas to msd:((
I did not even see that there is a tang on the bottom of the new dizzy!
I thought that the problem was a diameter issue! EDIT...Just read the post you just put up, it is a diameter thing!...I would take the gear of you Lucas dizzy and try that, if that does not fit then I reckon that all going to need a bit of machining.
Anyway I agree with what the others have said, basically you will have to do a bit of fettling in order to get it to fit, I think that this is in the nature of messing about with engines, nothing ever fits out of the box! I have also had to drill out new gears before now, they come with one hole drilled but not the second. It is not to hard to drill them especially if you have a pillar drill. I have also bust a gear by just knocking the roll ping through without checking that the hole line up, sometimes they are better one way around compared to the other.
I think that it will all be worth the effort, when I went from standard Lucas stuff to an MSD I noticed a BIG improvemnt in BHP, the engine started better, idled better and had more top end. I have converted two other RV8 lumps the same way with the same results. Even though I run a programable setup the improvement was there even went I just replicated the advance curve that my old bob weight system was running.
You will need decent HT leads, the standard carbon ones will 'mico spark' internally which causes them to fail eventually.
Last edited by sidecar on Thu Jul 03, 2014 4:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Capri_RV8 wrote:I know that the shaft from msd must be shortened. The problem is the shaft diameter, it is 0,3 mm bigger than lucas distributor . Thats why Im confused because there is no way to put gear from lucas to msd:((
I fitted a Mallory to my SD1 and used a new gear, and the gear came with the hole through it - just had to drill the shaft in the Mallory. The point being the Mallory shaft was the correct diameter.
Dave
London SW
Rover SD1 VDP EFI
MegaSquirt2 V3
EDIS8
Tech Edge 2Y
I just got new gear set for my Mallory from Real Steel and that had no pin hole in the gear ? Luckily I had a spare gear on the shelf. So some replacement gears do need drilling... FWIW
