No Spark

[oldelanman]

"Without a photo or more information, we can't really help you."

Fair enough, but my mechanic did not take pictures. I suspect I am confusing a stabilizer with a resistor. I take it the car would have had a stabilizer on the tachometer as built by Lotus?

The voltage stabilizer is mounted on the back of the speedometer not the tacho so unlikely to be the item which your mechanic has removed.

Voltage stabilizer

[Donels]

"The curious: The mechanic got it running with no tach installed, but only after cleaning the new points in the new distributor."

This sounds like the points are arcing and points to a faulty capacitor.

[Lotus 50]

Thanks. He said it was on the back of the tach, but with unknown history prior to 1984, anything could be there.