V8 Column for June 2005
published in Safety Fast!, the award winning monthly magazine of the MG Car Club

This month we have news of the next V8 Gathering at Hazeley Heath in north Hampshire, and a useful RV8 Workshop Note from John Dutton which should interest to MGBV8 enthusiasts too.

Wrench for the RV8 distributor clamp nut
John Dutton (Woodcote Green 1664) from Kent found it impossible to undo the distributor clamp nut with an ordinary spanner and eventually found a special long reach angled wrench. This note is RV8NOTE229 in the RV8 Workshop Notes series.

RPI rechipped my low mileage RV8 and replaced the plug leads and whilst I haven't driven far enough to log the petrol consumption, there is no doubt the engine is much more responsive and doesn't stall when hot started. I have wanted to retime the car properly but had difficulty getting a spanner on to the distributor clamp nut and found my nut would not shift with a conventional spanner as there is not room to get any leverage. Well with help from Oz I have finally managed to track down the special tool - a long reach angled distributor clamp nut wrench - which I couldn't find in the UK. Once I had the useful angled distributor clamp bolt wrench, I was able to move the clamp nut and reset the timing.


Distributor clamp bolt wrench assembled. (Photo: John Dutton)

The wrench has two L shaped ring spanners, with 3/8" square ends that join together with a connector, or you can use a 3/8" ratchet on either angled spanner. The 9/16" ring fits the V8. It is also much easier to get the spanner onto the nut, which is all but invisible and pretty inaccessible.

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Distributor clamp nut is difficult to see, but the long reach angled spanner enables you to get to it. (Photo: John Dutton)

I found you can get the wrench in the US and Australia and eventually got mine on eBay from a supplier in the US called Performance Tool & Supply - tel (001) 814 362 3221. It is part number W1189 Offset Distributor Wrench and it costs $22 (about £12) delivered to the UK. I have also seen the same part on other US websites as KD tool number 104. The same tool is also available from Repco in Australia who say "we have a three piece distributor clamp tool 1/2 & 9/16 with an af 3/8 drive coupler that can be used at any angle or with socket accessories". There is a picture of the MECO wrench on the specialist RV8 website run by Jim Dolbel in Australia at http://www.mgrv8.com/ownerstips.php
The distributor clamp nut is slightly easier to get to on the MGBGTV8 but this wrench makes the job of adjusting the timing on a V8 easier.