Ignition rotor failure again.

[MontanaDiver]

I posted just over a year ago after my jag became a no start and I had to have her towed home. This year, just prior to Memorial Day weekend, I had driven about 10 miles when I developed a misfire. I immediately headed home since I was certain I had another cap and rotor issue. I removed the cap over the weekend and cleaned it and the rotor with electrical spray cleaner. I am back to about 70% power. The cap and rotor were both contaminated. I reached out to SNG Barrett for a resolution and I have not heard anything back from them this week. Pretty crappy to not be able to drive my car due to a possible abysmal design and composition of an interior rotor. Hear it is another weekend and my jag is sitting in the garage.

Pictures are on my iPhone, I will send them in a subsequent post.
Is a Jaguar rotor less susceptible to failure. I believe the rotor is the issue! What about a cap. I see Lucas, anything out there that is better?
Any thoughts?

Dennis

[42south]

Hi
I had cap issues with my S3 as well. If you are getting oily contamination in the cap you may be getting fumes past the oring on the base of the distributor.
Jaguar on the later v12s used a vented distributor cap, which relied on a slight vacuum from the air filter intake to ensure a flow of clean air through the distributor.
I fitted the vented cap and never had any more problems with contamination inside the cap.
Sng sell the vented caps
Cheers

[christopher storey]

This sounds absolutely characteristic of the rotor becoming conductive when hot and thus earthing itself through the distributor drive . These rotors are aftermarket Chinese items and the problem is that the bakelite/plastic is not to original specification. As a temporary fix you could try interposing a layer of clingfilm between the rotor arm and the shaft, which sometimes works as a get you home fix . You could also try an e mail to the Distributor Doctor in England whose products ( provided they are genuine because even his have been illicitly copied ) are far and away the best

The e mail is martin@distributordoctor.com

[MontanaDiver]

Thanks for the assistance. I have sent an email to Martin.

Dennis

[MontanaDiver]

So after several discussions with staff at SNG Barratt, the technicians surmised that the system might be creating an out of phase response and damaging the rotor via too much voltage. The folks there replaced all parts to the ignition system; distributor, ballistic resistor, amplifier and coil.

While I am not an electrical guru, I installed the new system and tested parts as I installed them to make certain that I had not failed in my installation procedure. All my tests indicated no issues are present that should prevent the ignition system from operating properly. I tested the amplifier, made certain that it was able to fire the coil, the ballistic resistor and all positive 12 V wiring was at normal voltage.

After installing the distributor; rough indexed to TDC, I made my first try to get the engine to start. In the past after she has sat for a week without being started, it takes 10 seconds for her to start. Amazingly, she started immediately. Rock solid idle cold. I shut her off so I could change out of garage clothes and take her for a drive. I was very gentle since the timing was only rough guesstimate and I didn’t want to risk damage. When she was fully warmed up,, the idle was running 250 rpm higher. Need to dial it in, since someone put the TDC marks on the underside of the engine.

A shout out to the SNG Barratt USA team who provided replacement parts under warranty after nearly 5 years of use and to having Brian from the UK office call me to explain what might have gone wrong the first time.

Certainly they could have found MANY reasons to not provide the replacement pieces, however the GM of Barratt USA was adamant about discovering what went wrong and working diligently to solve the issue.

Dennis James