Orientation of 123 Electronic Ignition

Testing is going well, but one thing niggling me is the 123 electronic distributor. From what I can tell, it's doing exactly what it's meant to do, it's just that it's not quite pointing where I'd expect it to point......Its orientation is 'different'. It's pointing at the oil filler tower.

123 electronic ignition fitted

When I first got my car, it had the wrong distributor for a 2175cc engine. It was a Ducellier 4254D distributor (a 'DV010a') for a 1985cc engine (and then later for 2347cc engines). This is the angle of that distributor.

Ducellier 4254d/ DV 010 distributor

The distributor is pointing to the right of the oil filler tower. I then fitted the correct Ducellier 4155d distributor (a 'DX05a') to my car and it looked like this.....

Ducellier 4155d/ DX05 distributor now fitted

Pretty much the same as the previous 4254d distributor did. In both cases the distributor is pointing between the oil filler tower and the carburettor - towards number 4 spark plug. 

And here's a  mechanical distributor on a 1967 car - presumably with the same engine as my car. The orientation looks to be the same as mine was.

Orientation of (SEV?) distributor on a 1967 car

I say 'was' as I've just fitted 123 electronic ignition to my car. Now the distributor looks like this.....

With 123, distributor points towards the oil filler tower

It's pointing towards the oil filler tower. The upshot of this is that:

• there is tension on the HT lead from the coil to the distributor cap and it could pull out.
• the two thin wires coming out of the 123 to the coil are hard up against a hose near the block and could be broken.
• the HT lead to number one plug has to navigate around the filler tower more and is tighter
• one of the clips holding the distributor cap is hard against one of the studs of the water pump and awkward to access

All in all it looks 'different'. About 15 to 20 degrees 'different'? The drive head of my 123 has fitting holes at 90 degrees apart.

Alternative positioning for 123 drive head

I could rotate the head 90 degrees, but then the distributor cap would point to the heater. I looked at photos of other cars with 123 units and there are plenty that seem to have the distributor cap point to the oil filler tower like mine does. Just to labour the point, here are some examples.

I found at least one where the distributor points more towards the carburettor......

....and some some where the distributor pointed between the carburettor and the coil. 

(Credit: Marius Gradinaru)

And to complete the set, I found one where the distributor points to the heater. I think this is what would happens if I rotated the foot on my 123 by 90 degrees.

In the interests of balance, occasionally I found some that looked about right.

With mine pointing at the oil filler tower, It's only a few degrees difference to the position of my old Ducellier distributor, but seems to have been a deliberate 'thing'. Because of this, I had wondered whether setting the little dial on the side of the 123 to a different position meant that the angle of the unit was different when the timing was being set. So I went through the timing process again. Changing that dial position may have altered the timing characteristics, but it didn't alter the angle of the 123 distributor.

On an American DS forum there is little love for 123. This seems to date back a few years and a to batch of 123s that was deemed faulty because of their alignment once fitted. The distributor cap clip was hard up against the water pump and that prevented setting of the distributor advance. Access to that clip was even harder if the car had a radiator expansion tank fitted. the main problem was felt to be the angle of the hole through the drive heads. 

The American experience - about 45 degrees difference in drive head angle

The response and customer service from 123 was deemed poor or non-existent. As a solution, I think that in some cases different drive heads were supplied for the 123 that altered the angle of the units when fitted and, in other cases, people resorted to re-driiling their heads to achieve a better alignment.

From what I'm seeing on my car at the moment, I can understand some of this, but a small part of me thinks that 123 is a fairly small company. Units are made for/ programmed for a wide range of cars and the company probably only make a few alternative feet.  'Close' is perhaps felt to be 'good enough' or maybe the wrong heads were fitted to that batch of 123s? Although just fitted, my unit was bought in 2018 and has a 2017 manufacture date etched on the side. Perhaps it's one of a faulty batch? All I know is that it seems to work as intended.

Maybe, at some point, I'll try and drill another hole through the drive head but I think at the moment I'm just going to leave things the way they are.