Aldon Ignitor - 18 years on

[elans3]

Having recently bought my old S3 S/E back after 17 years, I've been going methodically through it, checking everything, and found very little amiss. the three interim owners spent a lot of money, and made it one of the very best available. It had a full engine rebuild last December, and had only done 50 miles .
However, Since taking delivery of the car in August, I'd never been happy with a very slight misfire at just above idle (progression phase of the carburation).
Having sorted that out (incorrect jets fitted and after some proper balancing and airscrew adjustment), I managed 420 miles in the past few weeks, with the intention of doing the first oil change at 500.Most of the time the car performed perfectly, until last week.
Number 1 cylinder dropped off, no spark whatsoever. Luckily I had only gone round the block and managed to limp home.
Changed plug, no effect.
Changed plug cap & HT leads,( pretty sure these were the leads I fitted 18 years ago, but were still good).- No effect.
Then yesterday when I was fitting the leads, I pulled off the rotor arm, and the magnet sleeve from the Aldon Ignitor, that I'd fitted in 2002. I noticed that the inside of the sleeve was missing two out of four of the magnets.
Then I got the torch on the job, and I could see the two magnets attached to the distributor shaft.
This morning I managed to fish them out successfully, cleaned the sleeve thoroughly, and glued them back in place. Checked the security of the other two magnets, which was fine.
Hey presto, the car now starts and runs better than ever.
I'm presuming that the magnets didn't fly out at the same time, (it was two opposite each other), so it's strange that until last week, the car ran pretty well, presumably on 3 of them, then the other one coming out was the final straw.
I'm not knocking the Aldon Ignitor one bit. In fact, exactly the opposite. I've always been a fan, and had them on my following two Elan S3's, and an Alfa 105 Twincam, without a problem.
After 18 years and 20,000 miles, I Think thats a testament to the quality of the kit. I think it cost me around £75 back then from Aldon.
So anyone who has an Aldon Ignitor, or Pertronix that has had a few years of untroubled use, whip the magnet sleeve off and check that they're still stuck well in place.