Late last year, I had to replace my aftermarket black Lucas distributor cap because it started showing a hairline crack. It was only 3 years old/9000 miles. (Best quality I could find was the aftermarket black one with Lucas imprinted on it.) I replaced with OEM - it is identical black with Lucas on it, for 2x the price!
The rotor I had bought 3 years ago was black aftermarket too, seemed like decent quality and looked good, so i left it when i replaced the bad cap.
Well, I found SNG sells oem lucas rotors, about same price as their aftermarket ones. So i recently bought it, expecting it to be identical. Well, it’s not. The Lucas has a much thicker tip as you can see. Also, not sure if it makes any difference, but metal strip goes backwards a bit more on aftermarket. And the Lucas tip is a bit shorter.
OK this is a good point, I just received a new rotor, spark
Plug wires and ignition coil from SNG via my old mechanic.
I’m not sure I got the real deal parts.
From the top, the aftermarket rotor looks better…! It even has a indent to locate the carbon brush that the Lucs has not.
The thicker point of the Lucas would definitely live longer as the spark slowly eats the brass.
The quality of the plastic is an other issue, do they feal the same?
The indent to locate the carbon brush, can’t really be sure if that’s perfect. Just a bit off could make the spring tilt. I noticed on the cap that I replaced after three years, the carbon brush popped off on me. Also, just remembered, there was a bit of black on the rotor about 1 cm forward from that indent, so it’s not even close.
So just for comparison, I just received this two days ago.
Definitely not a Deculier ignition coil made in France for
This one. The last one I received was in a Jaguar box.
Looks like you got same first rotor as I. Like I said, works fine and seems to have longevity. The second one I got that says Lucas could be marginally better, or not?
I’ve had good experiences with Eurospare (our black fans are Eurospare) i think its one of the OEM suppliers for Jaguar. Does your coil have an imprint on it? My OEM coil didn’t say Deculier, it said Sagem, Made in France
Btw, only reason i found Lucas imprinted rotor, it was advertised for Etype V12. Perhaps those guys need it for car show rules? I knew it also works on HE, and it was also listed for XJS at end of description.
In answer to your question, no, my last one did say Deculier.
But it failed. I thought it might have been a return in the
first place just by the shape of and re-taped box it came in.
It had a low secondary resistance reading.
I’m going to take some readings on this one before I install
it for comparison.
I got a bad new Deculier coil too, about three years ago. Perhaps Jaguar switched manufacturers due to quality decline? It happens, especially if ownership change.
The most important consideration of a distributor rotor, assuming good quality materials are used and they fit snuggly on the shaft, is the tip-to-cap air gap.
The smaller the gap, the better, as long as it doesn’t hit. This video explains the effects of gap and plug wire resistance. The first half deals with plug wire resistance, and the second half with gaps.https://youtu.be/uvFPDAqhTOQ
