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Vacuum advance apparently not working...

Posted By : Gavin McFarland, 28-Jul-2005, 11:37pm

While trying to see what's been wrong with my MKIV 1300 (seems fine now but don't yet trust it with long journeys!), I was poking about with the distributor. Noticed that taking off the vacuum advance tube made no appreciable difference to the engine running. Doesn't seem to be an air leak in the pipe or "elbows", but if the vacuum advance unit is taken off, I can suck or blow air through it (implying a split diaphragm?). Also, sucking on the tube with the unit fitted doesn't move the baseplate (in fact, it seems pretty stiff). Is there a clever way of getting the baseplate out with the distributor still on the engine?

Still on the original Delco dizzy, 40k miles. The car appears to run fine without vacuum advance (I never take it above 3500 RPM) but I take it I should buy a new unit?

Typically, the car seems to be running fine, and the rain's started. Great...

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