Hi folks,

The Magneti Marelli distributor in my Panda (1000 FIRE, 1992) has a cracked casing. I recently bought a replacement casing from forum user kolza, and today I got the old one off with the intention of swapping the internals myself. The problem is, now I'm scared. I haven't found any particularly useful guides, and I don't really know if this is DIYable.

My book by Colin Beaver on ignition and timing says 'leave it to the professionals.' He then proceeds to rebuild a Lucas distributor, a bit different from my Magneti Marelli.

So...
1) Has anyone on here done this before?
2) Are there any online guides on how to rebuild a Magneti Marelli (I haven't found any)?
3) Is there any manufacturer's data regarding tolerances or clearances that I ought to be aware of?
4) Should I just leave it to a pro? (Bearing in mind my Panda-sized budget)
Etc.

I know electronic ignition is an option, but I'm a bit old fashioned and would like to get the points-dizzy working before upgrading.

Happy motoring

Hi,
Sorry, I was not aware that it might be issue - feel free to sent them both back to me - i'll strip and rebuild them for you for return postage. There is no much tollerance to be aware other than point gap, but thats set to nominal and then adjusted while on car while dwell angle checked.

Just strip the whole internals, make notes on the washers as the fibre one are imortant. undo do the counter springs, using pin drive push out the dowel on the otside which goes thru the driving dog.

No need to apologize, I accepted the challenge ;-)

That's a really generous offer, thanks!

From how you describe it, it sounds like I might be able to manage this myself, but if I end up out of my depth I'll PM you. Cheers!