Hi, Please pardon the intrusion by a old Jaguar guy. Recently I bought an unusual - at least by Jaguar standards - NOS 6 cylinder Lucas distributor stamped with a 5/59 production date. At first, in ignorance, I thought it may have been a D-Type part, but none of the numbers on the data plate matched any 1950's Jaguar production or competitions vehicles. The cap reads; "RACING AND COMPETITION" along with "LUCAS made in England". The cap is retained by three spring loaded chrome plated quarter-turn Dzus fasteners. No vacuum advance. The plug wires exit to the sides, four in one direction and the remaining two and the coil wire on the opposite side. The plug and coil wires are retained in the cap by pointed screws from inside the cap in the fashion of a Vertex magneto. There is no gear or drive dog and the shaft has never been drilled for any dowel or roll pin. It has a red plate on the side that reads "LUCAS RACING DISTRIBUTOR". The data plate identifies it as: Model M ENM4035A Type 10 5/59 Several nights of Google searches lead me here to your forum. The unt I have appears nearly identical to that shown in the photos posted to this list by Roger Willis on January 20, 2006 in post #360, with the exception that his distributor caps appear to be fitted with an additional rubber cover or boot. Is this a distributor for, or from, a 250 GT? Best regards to all, Mike Spoelker Louisville, KY USA
My father owned a 250 PF Coupe which originally came from Ferrari with those distribuors. They would have also had Lucas generator, regulator, and starter motor.
Hello Mike, Look at Post #360 on this page of FerrariChat. The distributors pictured here are in a PF coupe that belongs for a pen pal of mine, Roger Wills. Is the distributor you are describing like these? http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=86199&page=18 john
The distributor looks like the attached photos. I only have the one assembly. It came with no rotor and a used set of points. The cap and the distributor interior look new and unused. the drive shaft has never been drilled for a drive gear or dog. The previous owner took a small chip out of the bottom edge of the cap when he dropped it cleaning the dust off of it. I would not think that the chip would affect the functionality and I could find no other cracks. I found it on eBay. Mike Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
The plug wires exit to the sides. Four out one side and the remaining two and the coil wire exit the other. Regards, Mike Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
These distributors were fitted to about five Ferrari cars that I know of.Several are PF Coupe's and one is a black Cal Spyder that used to reside in Seattle. The caps are seemingly not available anywhere in the world. Togethere with Roger Wills I am planning a small custom run of caps for our use. It would be nice to find a few more owners with these caps to defray the start up cost.
Guys, I think the rational thing for me to do is clean this relic up, list it on eBay, and pass it on to one of you guys who really need it. I run a Vertex magneto on the XK-120 now, so it really serves no useful purpose to have the world's most exotic breaker-ignition backup when I have two or three spare mags already. On a pragmatic level, why don't you Lucas guys just switch to more readily available Marelli componants? Is that not a practical solution? Best regards, Mike
The drives on the back of the heads are different for the Marelli distributors. The cost of used drives, distributors with caps and rotors would be a couple of grand. One thing, your Lucas distributor has a rotation arrow on the tag, showing a counterclockwise rotation. Ferrari V12 distributors rotate in a clockwise direction. So your distributor may still be from some other kind of car, Aston Martin racecar maybe? Brian
FWIW, my Lucas distributor for my 4 cylinder TC engine has an arrow showing clockwise rotation; it goes counterclockwise however. I have a hunch mine is not original to the car. The 4 dergree thumbwheel adjuster to advance/retard the timing is also bass ackwards. Ken
Interesting observation. The rotation arrow would be correct for a Jaguar. I wondered about Ferrari. This has only a single set of contact points. Attached phot shows all of the parts after cleaning. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Given my complete ignorance of the value of this thing, I think my best bet is to put it on eBay. Starting price will be $100 and there will be no reserve or buy-it-now price. Auction will start at 7:00 PM Pacific time on December 4, 2012. Flat rate shipping in the US, overseas at cost on a case-by-case basis. The item number will be 130814009144
For some time and some reason probably only known by Enzo himself in 1959 Ferrari used Lucas Ignition at least on some 250 GT. For example the PF Coupe 1555GT left the factory with two Lucas ENM 4035 A. I wonder how many of those cars still have them today? Best regards Matthias
Very likely to show Marelli that he can't be pushed so he would have some edge when negotiating prices.
Well I think only for those who are missing one of the two. If you miss both what do you do with one? Then you better look for a set of Marellis which are easier to obtain. Best Matthias