This will be of limited interest, I expect, however…
I bought a good second hand distributor for my Morgan Plus 8. I put the pictured rig together to test the centrifugal advance. I used strips of aluminium foil to create a reflected pulse from a LED/photo transistor combination (at the drill and at the rotor post). The drill has a no load speed of 2900 rpm and made 2300rpm coupled up. That’s 4600 crank rpm. Also tested at 1300 rpm (2600 at the crank). Not the most accurate method as there is a bit of “eyeballing” trace synchronisation etc but got close enough to the Rover 3500 spec sheet to be satisfied. It was definitely better than pulling the old distributor and trying to run up to 5000 rpm in the garage with a dial back strobe - it’s nearly impossible to get low into the front of the engine.
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If ever you need a spare distributor from a 3500, contact me.
Thanks Paul. This one was pretty good no slack in the movement. I recently bought a Stanley block plane from Colorado so I know the route is tested! Paul.
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Ingenious, Paul. Now, how about mocking up a rolling road for fine tuning the carb settings? 
In any regard, you have put in my mind that I should pull the distributors out of the 3500s before I go to the crusher with them.
I guess we should check YouTube, someone might have tried that!
They’re a cheap improvement option with an electronic module in them (PowerSpark). I have one in my car. All done for 80 bucks.
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