Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

I am still working my way through a list of possible causes for my engine running poorly

One question , is the distributor earth good.

Well looking at my distributor the earth wire is missing , but I can't quite see how it should work as the base plate looks like it's fixed directly to the body where the earth wire should be.

I am going to fit a new earth wire , but from the picture below , am I missing something within the distributor.

The date stamped on the side surprises me as its 1988 so not original.

They earth via the dist body to the engine block, no wire connection. You need to make sure the ignition to plate and plate to dist body connections are good (I.e clean and oil free). Also good to make sure good thermal connection too to avoid any overheating issues with the module.

You could probably add write from ignition module to earth via a mounting screws for testing but I doubt is an earth problem there.

Quite common for a replacement dist to be fitted as they wear and get play in the shaft. Which leads to increased spark scatter.

There should be a braided earth strap from the block to the chassis on the other side of the engine.

Carl