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MG MGA - Contact Breaker Cam Lubrication

I've got the standard old contact breaker set-up which nowadays is made with the red plastic follower. The original tufnol type were lubricated with engine oil and were no problem. I believe the current red type are supposed to wear badly with oil; as a result I've used petroleum jelly on this for years.
Has anybody got any reliable info on what's best for us here?
Please forget the 'electronic' suggestion guys.
Pete
Pete Tipping

I have a tube of "Niehoff NL-2 distributor cam lubricant" that I have have had for many,many years. I attemped to find a reference to it on-line but could not. I did find that Niehoff is an Echlin company. Perhaps you can have better luck tracking it down?
Ed Bell

Thanks for that Ed - bet its unavailable in the UK then...
Pete
Pete Tipping

Pete. Any good quality grease will work fine. Your petroleum jelly is a little light for this application, but would work fine if the points cam is lubricated a couple of times a year. I use a Teflon based white grease called Super Lube for points cams with good results. It does not tend to dry up as some of the lithium based greases do. Super Lube is available in the UK, but you may have to contact the distributor to find out where it is sold.

Les
Les Bengtson

Clean and dry your dist cam and mount the points DRY. Set the point gap with a matchbook cover and run it at a high idle for a few minutes. Then lube the points with only a blob of grease the size of a paper match head. Running in the points dry hardens the material with a little heat and beds it into the cam. This little trick will make the rubbing block last longer. This way your point setting will remain where set for a longer time.
R J Brown

I suppose a dab of silicone dielectric grease would be good for that application, because it stands up well to high heat and never dries out.
Barney Gaylord

Good advice above but stay away from anything with graphite in it. I dont know about the UK but in OZ you can get the Bosch points for the Lucas dizy with the fiber rubbing block and they will out last several sets of plastic points. Denis
Denis4

I spent yesterday converting to the Luminition electronic ignition system and can say that the points I took off had had a beating. I replaced a set about 15K miles ago and had re-set them twice but the plastic cam follower was quite worn.
Have to say the Luminition set is impressive, started first time which was a surprise. I had visions of much head scratching being necessary but all went very smoothly.

Neil
Neil Purves

Denis has two good "points" Fiber/phenolic rubbing blocks last much longer and graphite is bad. Graphite conducts current and can cause a misfire. Remember graphite plug wires? Since my tube of Niehoff dist cam lube from years ago went the way of the world I too have been using Silicone dielectric grease.
R J Brown

Thanks guys - I've got both teflon and silicone greases and I can get the Bosch cam lube too. Looks like I might be sorted. I found the timing to be advancing really quite quickly as the gap reduced with follower wear. Off with those dizzy clips AGAIN!
Cheers, Pete
Pete Tipping

This thread was discussed between 24/05/2010 and 26/05/2010

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