dg dizzy.

[bigbadbob76]

Just a quick question out of curiosity.
The distributor on my '86 DG has a vacuum advance unit but no pipe going anywhere. just an open port.
Not sure if it needs one being electronic ignition and seems fine without it but.... should it have a vacuum pipe to the carb?
if so... where on the carb?
Carb is standard Pierburg 2e3.

[Smiffo]

Yep.

See pic below:



Orientation of the photo is looking down from above, while stood under tailgate.
If you look top centre-ish in my pic, you can see the pipe you are referring to going into the back of the carb.
( it's an old picture, otherwise I would have taken a better one capturing the exact location for you. )

Have a look on yours.
You will have two ports back there. The one closest the dizzy needs to go to vac advance, and the other should be blocked off if you don't have the warm-air-set-up-thingy-majiggamy bit before the air filter. ( Mine doesn't have it so I have blocked the second port on the carb. )

I would have thought your van would run pi$$ poor without the vac advance connected?
You do have the correct dizzy I assume? The one with only one vac output rather than the DF dizzy with two outlets?

Not sure of the specific dizzy codes, but pop them in here from your van and one of the Guru's will know whether it is the right dizzy for a DG.

[itchyfeet]

Yes not going to run great without it, somebody probably increased the idle revs to cope.
Before connecting it check it works, it may have been disconnected because it broke and somebody could not get a new vac unit. Not sure the origionals are available but you can get a similar part if it's broken.

put a pipe on dizzy end, remove dizzy cap, rotor arm and dust cover and suck on pipe, you should see mech move in dissy a little bit. You will need to suck hard.

you need to check your ignition timing too, it may well gave been adjusted to cope.



https://www.brickwerks.co.uk/polyamide- ... tural.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://www.brickwerks.co.uk/vacuum-hos ... braid.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[bigbadbob76]

Thanks guys, great info.
I wasn't sure if the electronic ignition took care of advance and the vacuum port was a hangover from earlier days, so good to hear from those who know.
I have a pipe linking the two ports on the carb together, so both effectively blanked off.
As you say, maybe done due to a dodgy advance unit.
It doesn't run "pi$$ poor" as such but does stumble when just off choke until properly warmed up and that takes a while, it's like it's lean in that area, but fixed timing would explain it too.
I have the one port version that looks like this pic of Pauls.



Will check if suction moves it and also check timing.

[bigbadbob76]

Well that proves it. i stuck a pipe on the dizzy port and gave it a sook, i was drawing air so the diaphragm is leaky/burst.
Also checked the timing, 900rpm idle + hot = timing mark 2cm left of where it should be.
By my maths thats 13 degrees advanced of where it should be (5 degrees BTDC)= total advance of 8 degrees ATDC.
It does advance with revs, presumably done by the electronic ignition.
Unfortunately Brickwerks are out of stock of the vacuum units.
Any recomendations on good ones or ones to avoid?

[Smiffo]

Personally I would stick a wanted add in here.
Maybe get a whole dizzy ( keep as a spare. )

If you wanted to be really cheeky, you could scan the `alternate engine` threads and PM someone who is changing out a DG for a Subaru etc?

[itchyfeet]

Second hand or this may work
http://www.simonbbc.com/ignition-spares ... vance-unit" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
https://club8090.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=138696" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[bigbadbob76]

Reckon I'll order the powerspark one and see if it works, can't be worse than no vacuum, if not I'll look out/plead for a genuine one.

[300CE]

I'm running a Powerspark one on my DG - has been fine.

[itchyfeet]

long time since my van was up your way...

[Sir Brixalot]

Doing the same thing myself as the van feels a bit gutless. I lubricated the distributor but I have to suck very hard and the vacuum advance mechanism moves about 1cm. Is that correct?

[itchyfeet]

yep thats right, it does take quite a bit of suck

[Sir Brixalot]

OK thanks. It gets to the stage where I wonder if I'm imagining problems!

[bigbadbob76]

I'm running a Powerspark one on my DG - has been fine.

Thanks for that. good to know.

long time since my van was up your way...

Ah! the old man! did you walk up to the pinnacle?
A mate and I camped up there when we were teenagers and you can imagine our delight when we walked round the corner of the forest and found a French girl getting dressed outside her tent. Lets just say it was a cold morning.

[itchyfeet]

Ah! the old man! did you walk up to the pinnacle

Yes, got as high up as I could.
Done it before 25 years ago too.
Drove right up to the top where there is a lighthouse and all the piles up stones, free camped a few nights too.