Recently I had a problem with the total failure of the distributor rotor. I have no idea how long the rotor has been in my car, it was there when I bought the vehicle about nine years ago.

My local motor parts dealer found that a Bosch GL 195C was what I needed, so I bough one and fitted it. Engine ran perfectly again.

Yesterday on my regular monthly trip to Melbourne, the engine started to miss fire. Firstly it would not idle, then as I progressed, the problem became worse, the engine would cut out for a second or so, the fire up again with a nice loud explosion from the exhaust.

We struggled on and got home. This morning I swapped the 400-mile-old rotor for a known good second hand one and once again perfect running.

My parts supplier is now endeavouring to obtain another brand of rotor for me. In a week, my wife and I are off on a jaunt of about 2,500 miles in the SE (Aussie spec. fuel injected, series 2 SD1) and I would like to have a good spare with me.

Has anyone else had problems with Mr (or is it Herr) Bosch's products?

hi
yes, the new rotor arms are a well known source of problems.
not just bosch, many manufacturers products are not up to the job.
the problem is, they are made of cheap plastic, and this affects the rotor somehow, leading to problems as you describe.
finding a "new old stock" one is best if you can.
maybe not easy over there!
so the sd1 is still suffering from poor build quality after all these years....

Thanks KS, I have on order another new one of a different brand, just in case and am running a 2nd hand one. I'll keep a lookout for one NOS.

The golden rule with all Lucas distributors in RV8s is to use only the genuine Lucas rotor. You can get them off Mark Adams online shop site and some Land Rover dealers. They cost much more than the rest but they don't fail. Not everything Lucas made was bad.

Another option is to swap in a Scorcher distributor made by Performance Ignition Systems in Melbourne - they use all common Bosch components and are reported to be very good by those that have used them in SD1s, TVRs, and V8 Land Rovers. Cost AUD600 though (but much cheaper than the 123 Dissys or the MSDs and more reliable than Mallory).