1995 D1: Friends, I have a message of warning for all of you. It starts this last January, when I had a catastrophic water pump failure in the middle of a Midwest snowstorm. Now, I tell you, I can replace a water pump, but I cant do it in 10 degree weather, so I hired a tow and sent it down to a recommended mechanic in town. They made quick work of the water pump so I asked them to change the wires, plugs, cap and rotor while they had it. All was pretty good, but seemed to be missing on one cylinder on occasion. I figured I'd work it out in warmer weather.

However, this morning on my way home.from the gym, my faithful traveler up and quit on me, as we were moving on down the road. I dispatched the tow truck again but this time had it delivered to the house, thinking that the fuel pump was the culprit.

After calling in to work, I pulled the pump and all was fine, so I began trouble shooting for spark, according to the RAVE. Well, to shorten this up, I went all the way to test six in the ignition section, holding the coil wire over the exposed rotor and I watched a lightening storm strike brass. I had been discounting the cap and rotor since they were brand new, however it was in fact, the rotor that was grounded and draining the spark. Went to the local parts store and bought the borg Warner version, installed, turned the key and it fired right up, after briefly chugging through all the excess fuel.

So, my warning to you is first, know.what parts mechanics are putting into your ride and secondly, if.possible, don't trust the man to do your work.

 

The ignition rotors for the early D1s and RRC are complete garbage. Even OEM lucas and rover versions. We see them fail within weeks sometimes. Look up distributor doctor and order one of his from the UK

 

OP is 100% correct. I've been burned in the past. Ask questions or move on. The tow will be cheaper than the aggravation.

 

Heck at the 2018 Hill Country Rover Rally 3 older dizzy power LR's (2 RRC & 1 D90) all suffered from a bad rotor or cap. Of coarse everyone had spares as it's a pretty common issue with dizzy powered LR's. When I had a 94 RRC SWB I carried several as spares. I wouldn't blame the mechanics for that & I've seen it happen with $$ caps & rotors as well as el cheapo's.

 

Never has there been a better excuse to move over to dizzyless ignition, MegaSquirt will replace both ECU fuel and dizzy giving you a completely programmable ECU that you can map to suit your needs and a spark map that will allow you to run different maps if you switch to LPG from gasoline.