A curious thing is happening

[chrisfell]

And it is very curious.
I have been finding traces of engine oil inside the distributor cap. I first noticed there was quite a little puddle on the top of the PCB which sits under the rotor arm carrier in my old 123 distributor.
It has taken me a while to confirm the source of this oil. It is coming from within the 123 itself up the dizzie drive shaft to the rotor arm which then spins the oil onto the base of the cap.
Very curious.

My 123 distributor has been on the car for 15 years and almost 60,000 miles so maybe I’ve discovered its life expectancy.

Whatever, plans to take Freddie on an extended touring holiday have been shelved until I can stop the oil contaminating the dizzie and its delicate electronics.

[tim wood]

Do you have an oil filled coil ?
Not unknown for oil to leak from the coil and trickle down the king lead into the distributor.

Tim

[MarekH]

It is coming from within the 123 itself up the dizzie drive shaft

Is there any evidence of oil being pushed out of the crankcase anywhere else, i.e. is the pcv system good?

kind regards
Marek

[chrisfell]

I’ve checked the crankcase ventilation (first thing I thought of), all is correct. Not sure about the coil. It’s a Lucas branded gold coil.

Currently thoughts are that the oil is worming its way up the dizzie shaft through worn bushes.

I have two other dizzies - one conventional and one with Lumenition. They’ll keep me mobile while I get to the root of the problem.

[chrisfell]

The 123 dizzie…

….removed from the engine showing no signs of oil on the outside of the unit.

Inside, however, lots of oil once the central drive shaft had been removed.




There is an oil seal at the base of the unit, clearly it has failed. It is a standard metric size, single lip seal. I’ll replace it with a dual lip seal.