Services
Advanced Distributors offers a comprehensive distributor rebuilding service for ALL Lucas distributors, as well as most collectors and antique vehicles (no Ford or John Deere!!!) Our rebuilding service is the most comprehensive available, despite our bargain pricing. Besides Lucas, we also rebuild Bosch, Delco, Prestolite, early Auto-Lite, and many other distributors on a regular basis. Other brands are welcome by inquiry!!!
If you don’t see your vehicle listed, don’t despair! Chances are good that we DO work on them, and probably have a performance ignition curve designed to suit your particular engine! Give us a call and we can talk about your options!
Our rebuilds all start with a thorough cleaning of every component. I’m not talking about just running them through a parts washer or degreasing them – they must look new to perform new. Only at this point can accurate measurements be taken to perform all the machine work necessary!
From here all the parts are machined as necessary to eliminate play, slop, wear, whatever you want to call it until a precision assembly is fitted back together. This is NOT your typical rebuild where parts are just cleaned and reassembled. The factory tolerances go out the window. Every distributor built here is a hand-assembled masterpiece specifically assembled for its intended vehicle!!!
The last step of a rebuild is choosing appropriate advance springs, tailoring the amount of advance, and testing the distributor on one of our 13 Sun machines. It will be fitted with its fully rebuilt breaker plate, and points will be installed in most cases for tuning. I do not sell electronic ignition conversions, as there are numerous side-effects that you are better off without.
Recurve!!! This is our true specialty!
To “recurve” a distributor is to get the timing exactly correct at every single rpm possible, not just at idle. This allows your engine to rev freely through its RPM range much faster and more efficiently than ever before. This is done in many ways, most frequently by replacing the advance springs with our custom designed springs, and changing the amount of total timing. Here’s a pic of a very small portion of our inventory – some properly prepared 25D weights, DM2 weights, and a few of our most popular advance springs (over 2000 springs in those little containers!) We use the industry standard Sun 400, 404, 504, 680, and MDT distributor machines, and keep a Snap-On Distrib-U-Scope as a backup!
Vacuum Advance Rebuilds!!!
We can rebuild your Lucas vacuum advance to new specifications! Starting at just $30, we can install a new fuel resistant diaphragm to bring your advance mechanism back to life. Shown below is our basic service, re-plating as available.
I no longer rebuild other brand vac units.
Cracked Housing Repairs!!!
We can repair the common crack found at the clamping ring of many 25D and DM2 distributors. We machine off the broken portion and press fit a laser cut steel ring in place of it. The steel ring is bonded to the housing, positively engaged with internal tabs to prevent rotation, and absolutely crush proof, no matter how bent your distributor clamp is!!! Shown below is a before/after shot. Please also send in your bent clamp for repair!!!
Distributor Finishes
We have a polishing machine that allows us to give a beautiful finish to your distributor housing! Shown below on left, machine and manually polished, middle is our standard finish, right is everyone else’s glass bead finish. There is no issue with media impingement and the finish is more consistent than hand finishing. The pictures don’t to it justice. My photography skills are pretty poor, but you get the idea! All alloy bodies get machine polished like the center photo, the process can be tailored for a small extra charge in most cases.
We’re constantly striving to find new ways to improve your distributor. We have quite a few tricks up our sleeves, and can probably tackle any issues you may encounter!