Early 6 cyl. Delco Distributor Cap Reproduction

[Alan C.]

Hi Peter,

 

   Lanchester used a bit of a mismatch of electrical parts back then - you're right, the starter and dynamo are Lucas, coil and distributor are Delco (Later delco-remy London), Magneto (twin ignition) by Watford (North&Sons), with a sprinking of Rotax bits and pieces elsewhere.  It'll be nice to have mine running on battery/coil again rather than just the magneto.  My distributor is an Aluminium "Delco-remy london" model 5207, with a plain Delco cap (with older datestamps) and contact arm stamped just "Delco".   I'm assuming that the fact that it is labelled Delco-remy rather than just Delco means that it's from 1927 or later.   The earlier 40hp cars had the distributor mounted at the front of the engine with a different, side-exit cap; I'm afraid I don't know the part numbers, but I believe that they were all still Delco.

   I'll send you a direct message about the caps - any cap is better than a cracked cap!

 

Thanks again,

Alan

 

[Peter R.]

Alan,

 

This is interesting….

Delco and Remy belonged to GM long before they merged and become known as Delco-Remy on January 1st 1927. At that time the Dayton, OH operation was moved to Anderson, IN (to the former Remy plant). Up until that date the two companies operated independently and designed their own products. 

Delco-Remy LTD in London already existed before the merger in the US so I think the British branch has to be understood as a Delco AND Remy company (both companies owned by GM) rather than a merged and single Delco-Remy company. 
 

I know of several distributors for British cars that are of the typical Remy design, sold through Delco-Remy LTD, London. But until now  I have never seen a typical Delco designed distributor sold by Delco-Remy LTD for a British car.

 

Now here‘s the thing; French designed Delco (Continsouza) distributors have their own ID numbers but your Delco-Remy LTD distributor is stamped with an American Delco unit ID number - 5207.

 

Delco distributor 5207 was used in the US on the following vehicles:

 

1922  Bay State

1920-22  Davis

1920  Elcar

1920-22. Hanson

1919-20  Jordan

1922  Merit

1920-21  Michigan Hearse

1920-22  Noma

1920-23  Paterson

1920-21  Sayers-Scovill

1923  Stutz Fire Engine

 

All above vehicles have in common that they used a Continental 7-R engine.

 

So the distributor you are using on your Lanchester is actually an American Delco distributor that was used on the Continental 7-R engine in the US between 1919 and 1923 - with just a Delco-Remy LTD, London tag on it. I can imagine that Lanchester kept using it until 1928 as it was not uncommon for some European car manufacturers to stick longer to equipment that proved to be good and reliable, especially for smaller companies (to save cost, to be able to compete and survive).

 

There are distributor caps designed in the US in the late 1920’s and 1930’s for the American market that were still used on European cars in the 1960‘s etc.

….and your distributor cap has Delco P/N 14382 🙂

Thanks for the info on the Lanchester distributor. I‘ll update my database 👍

 

Peter

 

[Alan C.]

Thanks Peter,

 

    If "Delco-Remy London" existed before 1927, that would all make sense, and explain why I have this in a 1925 car - I had been assuming that the distributor must have been changed to a later one at some point, but now I suspect that it has always been there.

   I think that the steel gear quadrant rivited to the back of my distributor must have been a Lanchester-addition, used to synchronise the timing advance with the magneto through a complex arangement of gears rods and linkages.

    Also thanks for the page in the catalogue, and shows my other problem, a broken spring, part 28619, but I have managed to make a good reproduction of that now.

    Can you send me your contact details? - The forum won't let me contact you directly until I post at least another dozen or so off-topic posts about obscure "foreign" vehicles!

 

Cheers,

Alan

[Peter R.]

16 hours ago, Alan C. said:

The earlier 40hp cars had the distributor mounted at the front of the engine with a different, side-exit cap; I'm afraid I don't know the part numbers, but I believe that they were all still Delco.

Hi Alan,

 

Did the earlier 40 h.p. cars use the same distributors with just a different cap?

I‘ll send you a PM with my contact details so you can send me pictures for identification.

BTW - on the left in the picture you can see cap 14382 and rotor 12167 as originally used on distributor 5207. They are of the early Delco sliding contact type. In 1925 Delco started to change over to jump spark ignition. On the right you can see cap 16802 and rotor 16801, such as used on e.g. the 1926-27 Packard Six. Since these two caps and rotors are interchangeable as a set, you could easily convert your distributor to jump spark ignition. The benefit would be a more reliable ignition system and an improvement in performance (especially on distributors with centrifugal advance). The jump spark will also intensify the sparks on the plugs. Just something to think about.

Peter

 

[John Lynn]

Hello from New Zealand

 

I am looking for a NOS or new reproduction option for a distributor cap for my 1920 Davis. Delco # 14382.

 

I have two cracks inside my cap - causing tracking and misfire problems. Have tried to repair but with no luck.

 

Photos attached

 

Can you help ?

 

Regards

 

John