Sun Distribtuor Tester (aka stroboscope) for LZ V12s

[friscozephyr]

Hello everyone,

Knowing that the ignition system and in particular the distributor and coil are the major cause of poor engine performance on LZs I decided to take the plunge and purchased a "vintage" Sun distributor tester.

The tester I purchased is from 1950 and has all the manuals, adaptors and specifications for classic cars from the late 30s to about 1949, including LZs.

This unit is designed to run on a 6 volt system and came with a built in six volt battery charger as well as some portable Sun testing equipment (e.g., generator tester, battery tester, tachometer, etc.)

The unit I purchased is in perfect operating condition and was used most recently by a mechanic that worked on classic cars. he purchased it from the original owner. In fact this unit came with the original 1950 sales receipt.

It is not my intention to replace Jake Flemming (no one will every know as much as he does about the LZ ignition system) but to learn as much as I can to keep my LZ on the road.

I will post a couple of photos. If anyone has any advice of using this particular Sun tester I would like to hear from you.

I also recently purchased some vintage Snap On tool boxes from the 1930s and early 40s. I will post the photos of the tool boxes on a separate thread.

[v12lincoln]

Nice score. hard to find quality testing equipment for these old cars.

[friscozephyr]

Thanks. I have been looking for some kind of distributor tester in California for about five years with no luck. I finally "stumbled" on this one in Montana (no too many classic cars in Montana but a lot of pickup trucks !!!).

I'll let you know how things progress once it arrives.