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MG MGB Technical - Lucas Electronic Ignition

Has anyone installed a Crane Electronic Ignition to replace the former Lucas electronic unit. If you have could you please give me a description of shutter used. Unlike the 45D distributors, the distributor used on the Lucas electronic distributor has a round shaft without the cam. Crane supplies a package of shutters with their unit for all kinds of cars with 4,6, 8 and 12 cylinders. The 45D's use a spring loaded shutter that pushes down over the cam which tends to lock it in place. The round shaft needs a different shutter, one that locks to the shaft. I have a number of the shutters and need to know which one of the 4 cylinder units is proper for the Lucas electronic distributor. Thanks for any help.
Barc Cunningham

Does the 45DE4 or 45DM4 have the correct holes for mounting the Crane trigger? If not you would probably be better off using the upper shaft and points plate out of a 45D4, or putting your springs and weights in a 45D4, then converting that.
Paul Hunt 2

I assume you are talking about the Opus ignition.

The shutter has four 'legs' at the bottom that fit into four 'slots' see here for an example.
http://home.comcast.net/~whaussmann/MS_MGBGT/MSI_ign2.htm

The homemade bracket you see there for the sensor is unnecessary for your needs. The bracket that comes with the Crane kit will work fine. Do put some locktite on the screw.
werner haussmann

Paul and Werner, thanks very much. Paul can the 45D4 upper shaft cw weights,springs, etc. be installed directly into the 45DE4 and 45DM4? This sounds like it may be the best option. Werner your Megasquirt page cleared it up for me.
The shutter has the four legs as you say, which locks it to the shaft.
This fellow who I am trying to help bought and installed the Crane XR700 kit for a points dizzy. Naturally the shutters that came with the kit were for a cam type setup.
As a result the shutter was not locked on the shaft and was slipping. As you might imagine timing was a bit of a problem.
Now it is either the correct shutter package or switch the upper shaft to a points one.
Again thanks Guys
Barc Cunningham

If you call Crane and tell them your problem, there is a good chance they will send you the correct shutter. I've seen this happen before. Crane does not supply the correct shutter when ordering for an MGB with Opus ignition.
werner haussmann

Barc - I've not done it (we didn't have the electronic distributors in the UK) but it would not surprise me if they did.
Paul Hunt 2

I've dealt with Crane many times for orders like this and while they don't ship quickly, the correct shutter will probably be less than $5.
Jeff Schlemmer

This thread was discussed between 02/10/2007 and 10/10/2007

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