The specialist: Distributor Doctor

By Paul Hardiman

| 4 Sep 2025

Classic & Sports Car – The specialist: Distributor Doctor

There’s a lot of subtlety to advance springs.

Sadly we don’t have the space to get all esoteric here; all we need to know is that Distributor Doctor will put your sparks back to where they should be.

That means easier starting, better running and improved fuel consumption.

For those of us who ditch the vacuum advance and set the timing to ‘just before it pinks’ at max load and revs, there is a more scientific way.

Testing the vacuum advance of a rebuilt Lucas unit at the Distributor Doctor

Each unit rebuilt by the Doctors – Martin Jay, who has a background in engine diagnostics with Crypton, plus his small gang of cohorts – is tested and sold with a plot of its advance curve.

So you know that it’s within design parameters, according to the specs held on site.

“We have information back to the ’30s,” says Martin. “If you don’t have that you’re nowhere, and we find that on a lot of distributors neither the advance nor vacuum characteristics bear any relevance to the vehicles they are claimed to be suitable for.”

The firm holds vast stocks of spares, plus it has had everything else it needs remade, from nylon rev-counter drives to proper rotor arms that work and don’t short out, as well as the felt pads that go under them (and yes, you should oil them).

Plus, it now has a supply of remanufactured bodies for Lucas 23D4 distributors (as used on a variety of British classics), so the team can build you a new one from scratch.

The Distributor Doctor can ream bushes to 0.0001in accuracy

It even makes new distributors for Austin Sevens. Vintage racers form part of the clientele; the Doctor can build to a specified advance curve, for modified engines: “We go back to 1928, Lucas and Rotax.”

Although there is sometimes a bit of a waiting list, the firm will aim to have your distributor back to you, rebuilt and tested, in two to three days.

Each one is washed, dismantled and blast-cleaned (by Barry Catton).

Bodies are rebushed, ferrous parts zinc-plated and even the vacuum-advance chambers rebuilt with new diaphragms – spot these by their part numbers, absent from pattern items.

The units are reassembled with new shafts and cams, advance mechanisms and rotor arms, plus “proper fibre-heeled contact breakers with the right spring tension”.

Martin (left) and Liz Jay with Distributor Doctor’s vast library of specs, which dates back to the 1930s

The completed units are calibrated on one of two impressively period-looking Sun testers to ensure that the sparks are happening at the right intervals.

Another piece of the armoury is a cutaway cap so that the phasing of the rotor can be checked as the distributor is spinning.

“They are probably better than new,” says Martin, “and there’s a three-year guarantee.”

Distributor Doctor also sells Pertronix contactless ignitors, plus its resin-filled coils branded Flamethrower, and supplies several well-known classic parts merchants.

In recent years, the company has also set up an online shop, which has helped it reach new customers from across the world.

Employees Andrew James and Matt Milton now look after day-to-day business, while Martin’s time is increasingly spent developing new products which will help keep classics running smoothly well into the future.

There. A whole story about distributors without once using the word ‘dizzy’.

The knowledge

Name Distributor Doctor
Address 8 Old Brewery Road, Wiveliscombe, Somerset TA4 2PW
Specialism Lucas electro-mechanical distributors
Staff Seven
Prices Four-lobe rebuild £234; sixes and eights £270; new A7 and 23D4 units £390 each
Tel 01984 629540
Web distributordoctor.com