Ducellier rotor arms

[foggyjames]

A VOC contact has been in touch, stating that they can't get hold of OE-spec rotor arms any more, and the alternatives have a very poor lifespan / produce running problems. Anyone got a solution to this problem? Are Ducellier even still in business?

cheers

James

[macplaxton]

They are part of Valeo Group as are S.E.V. Marchal.

What does an OEM spec arm look like? Made of monkey plastic or just poor fit or both?

I've had a few issues with rotors, but that would be for old S.E.V. Marchal dizzies.

[Chris_C]

Umm, which engine is this for? You know the issues I was having with longevity on 1.7 arms Mr B

[macplaxton]

Chris, I'm guessing he means Renault based units, as I think they would have the Ducellier dizzy and the Volvo based units having Bob Bosch?

[Chris_C]

Yeah, the 1.4 and 1.7 are completely different though, the 1.7 in particular is a right PITA if it doesn't have a decent arm and cap. I could pretty much only run OEM Volvo or it'd only last 6ish months and I know they are NLA

[macplaxton]

Thinking aloud here, if the Renix cars just have a sort of dummy distributor, could it not be swapped out for something that would fit in the hole and have a better arm and cap?

[Chris_C]

It's something I'd thought about (and am currently thinking about again, after buying a Clio Williams one from Renault last month for... wait for it... £77.

Like hell am I paying that again, I'm thinking EDIS fired by the Renault ecu atm. 1.7's I reckon will be able to run the Megane 8V coil packs fired from Renix, but not looked into it.

[volvodspec]

are they that expensive in the UK then??

for the 1.4 i replace them every small service, rotor is €5 and the dizzy is €15, brass contacts and Bosch manufacturer... the only shit i ever bought at a dealer were a set of door hinge pins, i am very happy with aftermarket parts as it's high quality and saves me money instead of buying volvo's relabeled partsboxes......

just checked on pointignitionned B14 & B19, the B172 and B200 and B19E; all dizzy + rotor arms for less than €20 for each engine and all bosch..

[Chris_C]

OEM dizzy's from Volvo were cheap (£20 ish for both cap and arm) it's just the Renault one was the silly price. Thing I always found was non OEM ones were substandard quality.

Swings and roundabouts!

[Ride_on]

For some reason some complete dizzys are very expensive, I'm surprised you can't get an aftermarket distributorless system for the same money by now. I've seen the odd one but part of a full mgt system costing £1000's.

1.7s tend to suffer oil leaks into the dizzy, as do 940s but they survive it a little better and its serviceable when the 1.7s seal on the cam shaft. 1.7s become undriveable.

[foggyjames]

Sorry guys, I totally missed the update notification in the Christmas rush.

I think what's happening is that he's only found two options so far - Volvo (no longer available...), or whatever the local motor factors have in. The latter is generally cheap crap which only lasts a few months. I'm presuming he hasn't tried a high quality alternative (Bosch is a good example).

Yeah, the Ducellier bits are for the B14. As far as I'm aware Ducellier were the OE right to the end of production, but I could very easily be wrong there. In terms of quality, he mentioned brass-coated terminals (cheap), opposed to ones made of solid brass (OE), or something like that...and how the lower quality ones are prone to causing a misfire after a few months, which is solved with a new cap.

Chris - would you plan to run an EDIS coil pack in wasted spark mode? If so, how will you sort out the phasing...does Renix have two outputs available internally? Sequential ignition would be way more complex, and require a phase (cam) sensor, so I don't suggest that is pursued! In terms of wasted spark, feeding the LT output of the renix unit to a sensor in the dizzy (to determine phase - 1/3 or 2/4) which then feeds a dual-channel spark driver would be an option for a retro-fit kit. Chrisproject #15

cheers

Jmaes

[volvomania]

A VOC contact has been in touch, stating that they can't get hold of OE-spec rotor arms any more, and the alternatives have a very poor lifespan / produce running problems. Anyone got a solution to this problem? Are Ducellier even still in business?

cheers

James

Was that 3213390 you're looking for?

[foggyjames]

Yes, I believe that's the one. Do you have a magical source?

cheers

James

[trabitom99]

I found two rotor arms which correspond to that Volvo part number:

Facet 3.7696RS
http://www.wagner-autoteile.de/index.ph ... _id=147386
Quinton Hazell XR160
http://www.kfzteile.com/produkt/zuendve ... /xr160.htm

Even if they're rubbish, at those prices you could swap them every other fill-up

Cheers

Tom

[foggyjames]

Well that is the other option (and eBay has plenty of cheap options)...but it's not so popular for the person who likes to have their car serviced once a year (or every 6 months)...and I've heard some of them do fail that soon!

cheers

James