Words Simon Charlesworth
Photos Simon Dodd
Had we got lost? No, the café’s still there – so it’s
not my terrible sense of direction. Had there been one of those diary cum
schedule interface miscalculations (otherwise known as a cock-up)? Thankfully,
a small note on the door revealed all, H&H Ignition Solutions had relocated
just around the corner to new premises.
The last I personally visited H&H, it was around Christmas time for sister
magazine Retro Cars, when the business was roughly eight months old
and just out of its nappies. Yet despite this relative short time lapse,
things have changed considerably for the partnership of Phil Hull and nephew
Lee Hull. Thankfully, the highly knowledgeable yet down-to-earth duo still
have their sense of humour and their ability to make you feel at ease – but
the new premises are significantly larger and now, the telephone is ringing
so much it’s in danger of suffering with nervous exhaustion...
Packing 20 years of dizzie experience between them, they formed H&H after
their previous employer decided to ditch old stuff and move into bulk sales
of late model equipment. Initially, they started out refurbishing distributors
and dealing in spares but since then, they have moved onto modifying and
even remanufacturing bespoke dizzies.
However, before we go any further, we must push the rewind button to that
word ‘refurbishment’ because the chances are, like me, you’ve
probably got a few misconceptions about it. Unlike some companies or individuals
who take a tired old mechanical component, wire brush it, give it a quick
blow over and do the bare minimum to the components, H&H’s approach
is quite the opposite. The casting’s are acid dipped and shot blasted
until minty, machined as necessary and new internals fitted. The end result
is a product which looks new and if you’re still sceptical, well, did
you notice that the Pinto dizzie in the photos was a refurb carried out by
H&H? No, I thought not.
In fact, the Hulls find that it isn’t just the refurbishment side of
the business, which is widely misunderstood – it can apply to the entire
ignition business. “The problem is that a lot of people who tune cars
these days don’t realise how important the distributor is. If it it
doesn’t get the spark there at the right time, you can end up with
holes in pistons and burnt-out valves,” says Phil. “One bloke
even had a new engine which kept holing No.3 piston because of detonation
problems.”
Lee adds: “Really we do anything from a standard recondition to a fully-modified
Race or Rally-spec distributor. Also because we do dig out old new stock
we can sometimes offer a brand-new distributor for some cars too. We deal
with a lot of the performance and tuning companies in the UK and we’re
gradually creeping into Europe. Actually, there’s only one other company
I can think of which deals in distributors and it can’t recondition
them.”
“Yeah, we’re at the back of many things,” says Phil. “There
are many people who profess to recondition distributors but you’ll find
that they do starters, alternators and steering racks too. They don’t specialise
in anything, so if you were to send them something oddball they’d be scratching
their heads. Whereas we can machine a new type distributor – hence the
lathe – so that it will fit a classic.”
So whether it’s a matter of updating your classic Ford to an electronic
distributor – more of which in a minute – or carrying out a collar
repair to a 23D4 (a Twink’s dizzie) on the lathe, the Hulls can help.
No wonder the company slogan says ‘The only solution to your ignition
problems’.
Sitting on the bench is a new form of H&H electronic Bosch distributor
for a Pinto. “The actual distributor itself and its components have
been made before for different types of vehicle and it is a standard Pinto
unit. However, what we’ve done is mounted the amplifier onto the side
of the distributor – which has never been done before. In other words,
this is a fully stand alone ignition system without any big boxes or heavy
wiring, it’s just a small clip on a black plug with two wires that
connect to the ignition and the HT coil – and away you go...”
“It’s a cheaper, simpler version of igniter kits which are already
on the market. It uses all genuine OE parts which are freely available from motor
factors as well as us, so all the components are replaceable. Also, when it is
time to service it, it will only cost you around £25 in all,” says
Lee. “We do these for all different makes and models of cars and different
engine specs from mild road straight through to rally specs.”
Phil then adds: “We don’t charge extra either to curve the distributor
to suit the spec of the engine (it’s included in the kit price). Plus – and
it’s a big plus – if it’s our distributor and the customer
bought it from us, we will service it free of charge because that’s
the guarantee you get...” Despite not owning a salvageable Pinto, I
have to ask about cash – and again the answer’s another pleasant
surprise.
“It can either come as a distributor on its own or it can come with the
loom and an HT coil, but the price for a stock distributor starts at around the £200
mark. What we supply just depends on the customer because they may have broken
a car and salvaged all the gubbins, in which case they only just need the distributor.
Alternatively, they could have built an engine from the block up and so need
everything to get the ignition system working,” says Lee.
So if you’ve just bolted in a carb-fed Cossie into your MkII Escort
and can’t be bothered with wrestling with that huge pile of electrical
spaghetti that is a standard YB ignition system – now you know who
to talk to.
“Another feature of our special Pinto Bosch distributors is that because
it is fully electronic and it’s been developed by the factory, it’s
got what’s called a variable dwell. Now the dwell angle on points distributors,
igniter kits and aftermarket electronic kits, are set at a pre determined value – say
40º. (This is the amount of time the contacts are closed and which gives
the coil time to re-energise between sparks.) Whereas our variable dwell dizzies
have a maximum dwell angle and this translates into more re-energising time and
ultimately, a fatter spark,” says Phil.
“In fact we had some feedback this morning from Ross Irvine (an engine
rebuild specialist),” says Phil. “We built him one of these distributors
last year for a customer Pro Stock engine. Anyway that engine has secured the
customer his fourth successive title and it also gave him his most powerful engine
yet... So he was very pleased with that and he has just sent in a V8 for us to
work on.
Oh and in case Crossflow owners are feeling a little left out – don’t – H&H
can supply you with a similarly trick dizzie. “Again, it’s got
an amplifier mounted on the side, the curve can be set to whatever spec,
all the parts are widely available and we can supply these for the 1700cc
and the 1300cc,” says Lee.
“Due to the high revs the Pintos and Crossflows can reach, we’ve
been offering rev-limiting rotor arms which can be preset at any rev limit – from
1000 rpm right up to 9-10,000 rpm. So it will safe guard your distributor and
engine for as little as £15 for a cap and rotor arm.”
“Basically, if it’s Ford we do it – RS Turbo distributors are
getting popular and we’ve got genuine brand new Lucas dizzies for Escort
CVHs too. Really though, our specialist niche is modifying advance curves from
standard spec to mild road, fast road or race. That’s for any Ford distributor
providing it’s mechanical advance (of course the later types RS Turbo and
RS Cosworth are signal controlled without any mechanical advance). We’ve
got spec sheets for all sorts of Ford engine fitted with all sorts of cams and
carbs, we’ve logged literally hundreds of advanced curves in our files.
Plans for the future of H&H? Currently, they’re looking into HT
leads and have just started dealing in high torque competition starter motors
which can cope with turning over high compression engines. “We’ve
got them in stock now for the Pinto, Crossflow and Essex. They come in nine
tooth and 10 tooth variants and we’ve started getting some good feedback
from the rally people now,” says Lee. As for the HT leads, H&H
will have a catalogue compiled as soon as time allows.
“People who come here, are surprised that we just deal with distributors
because they don’t think there’s the demand for them. The thing is
though, we’re turning around at least 200 per week for all different makes
and models. When you came and saw us last year, we were working a normal nine
to five day but since Christmas that’s gone from 7.30 - 8am to 7.30 - 8pm.
It’s because more people are hearing about us, demand has snowballed and
more people are liking our products.
Phil adds: “In fact, we’ve been told many a time that we really
do need a website now because we are missing out on trade...”
“Thank God!” says Lee laughing. “Otherwise we’d be here
until midnight...”
Reproduced by kind permission of ‘Retro
Cars’ November 2004 issue
Spark Up
With a passion for classics, H&H Ignition
Solutions will custom build an ignition system for
your retro ride.
“A lot of people forget the ignition system,” says Phil Hull, one
half of the partnership which is H&H Ignition Solutions. “They totally
forget and ignore it because they think it’s just a part which you fit
and that it’s going to work.”
This is the voice of experience, which you may very well end up talking to
in your rebuild’s fluffing, farting and coughing time of need. “The
problem is a lot of people who tune cars these days don’t realise how
important the distributor is,” says Phil. “If it doesn’t
get the spark there at the right time, you can end up with holes in pistons
and burnt-out valves.”
Phil’s nephew, Lee, then tells me how H&H came about. They both
started working with ignition systems in 1988 with another company but found
their interests lay in the classic and vintage market. So instead of letting
all that experience wither away, they left and set up H&H about eight
months ago.
“Since then we’ve moved into modifying distributors and now we make
our own electronic ignition kits, which are a step beyond the other kits,” says
Lee. “It’s just a case of refitting the distributor and away you
go. We do anything from a standard recondition to a fully-modified race or rally-spec
distributor. Also, because we dig out old-new stock we can offer a brand-new
distributor for some cars instead of reconditioning.”
On cue, Phil then points to the shiny dizzies, which are lined up on the
work benches. “They’re for Minis, Minors, Midgets, Sprites — all
the A and B-Series engines — but we can change the drive so that they
can fit either the 1300 or 1600 Crossflow,” says Phil.
“Put it like this,” says Lee, “we deal with a lot of the performance
and tuning companies in the UK and we’re gradually creeping into Europe.
We get a lot of good feedback from the internet because distributors aren’t
widely available.”
“Yeah, we’re at the back of many things,” says Phil. “People
who recondition distributors are rare, but you’ll find the ones that do
also offer starters, alternators and steering racks too. They don’t specialise
in anything. Whereas we can machine a new type distributor to make it fit into
something old.”
Lee adds: “It’s a way out for people who have distributors or
engines that are rare and the stuff’s not available anymore, or even
for distributors beyond reconditioning,” adds Lee. “What we do
is take a late type distributor, machine the casting, put their drive on
to it and away you go. They’ve got an electronic ignition kit and a
new distributor.”
“I’ve done a Lamborghini and the owner was quite chuffed because
he couldn’t find a distributor for it,” says Phil. “So we reconditioned
the old one. Yes, he was chuffed because you get a guarantee and you get a nearly-new
distributor.
“We also modify the distributor from the Rover V8, which is rare now and
will cost £400 if you can find one. What we do is take the drive off, strip
the distributor down because the car manufacturer we supply can’t locate
them anymore and it supplies them for its older cars.”
Lee adds: “We’ve a rolling road nearby and they’ve got
access to all sorts of makes and types of cars, so they’re able to
provide us with a spec if we need it. Having said that we have filing cabinets
full of them, so we are more than likely going to have the spec we need.
“When it comes to reconditioning we’ve found that there’s this
stigma attached. A lot of people think of a reconditioned product as someone
in their shed wire-brushing something down and then crudely painting it to make
it look new,” Lee continues. “What we do is strip the distributor
to its minimum parts, put it in an acid dip to get rid of all the crap, oil and
rust, use a shot-blaster, which we bead the castings in to bring out a new finish.
The bolt-on parts, we send away for plating so they come back like new. So when
you get the distributor, it looks new and not like it’s been cleaned up.
“Everything inside is new: bushes, seals, caps, rotors, contacts, condensers,
etc. Apart from the casting and the shaft, nothing’s reclaimed.”
Phil adds: “Seriously though, as far as we know, we are the only people
in Europe who specialise in this area. Yes, there are people who dabble,
but nobody does what we do and we’ve got a combined knowledge of about
20 years, from messing about with cars and being in the business.”
Is there a specific market which has proved a nice earner for H&H? “We’ve
had quite a good response from rally people,” says Phil. “People
who have put the Vauxhall XE engine into a MkII Escort and who aren’t
getting the power out of it and it’s not behaving as it should. So
they send it in, we map them a new curve, they do a new rally and they are
really pleased with it.”
“To be honest, it’s something which a lot of people don’t think
about until they get to it,” says Lee. “Especially people who do
kit cars or who put an engine in a car which isn’t supposed to be there.
So when they get to the distributor they find it isn’t going to be as easy
as they thought.”
“Yeah,” says Phil. “Especially when they go from an engine
which was ECU-managed — like the Vauxhall XE — so we’ve developed
a bolt-in ignition kit for it.
“We’ve had a lot of people ringing up with engine management problems,
wanting to know how to wire it up, and when we tell them that they’re going
to need all the engine management system the phone goes quiet. Of course there
is an alternative — we offer them one of our custom-made distributors.
“You won’t believe how much people spend on engines. They’ll
spend thousands on mods only be disappointed,” Phil goes on. “Often
the spark is so far away, it’s not getting there on time. A mapped, modified
distributor is important, it can give a lot of benefit. If it’s not right,
it isn’t going to run the engine right and you’ll lose power and
performance.
“Plus,” says Phil, “some engines might feel like they’re
on steroids because of the distributor. What they don’t realise is the
spark is getting there too soon, because of the way the cam has altered the engine — it’ll
quite often run at a higher tickover. Instead of running at 750/850 rpm, a good
cammed-up engine will end up running around at 1000 rpm because if it ticks over
any slower it’ll shear the lobes off the cam.
“If you put a standard distributor in there it’s already half-advanced
because that’s what the original engine wanted — but it’s not
the original engine anymore. So they end up having to muck about with the distributor
and the timing. Ask a rolling road guy. They would praise the ground we walk
on because it makes their job easier if a car’s got a proper advance curve
distributor in it.
“There’s also the safety factor to consider if you’re running
a highly modified engine,” says Phil. “They don’t need as much
advance on the spark as the standard engine — say its output has gone from
80 hp to 160 bhp — that’s quite a difference and it could badly damage
it. People often buy things to make things go faster, but it is a matter of safety — after
all, brakes don’t make a car go faster but they do make it safer.”
Typical Prices
A and A+ Series (all specs) £129
Crossflow (all specs) £129
Pinto electronic kits (all specs) £165
Vauxhall electronic kits (all specs) £165
Reconditioning service from £50
Retro Cars November 2004 
