Lucas Rita Ignition

Lucas Rita

Does anyone still run these. I think I will try one, because I have aquired a few of them. If so where do you mount the amplifier box. It seems to big to mount near the coils.

Nigel

Once upon a time, there was points. Then there was Lucas Rita & Boyer. The Lucas was the more expensive of the two & had a flat headed points cover. Apparently, the Lucas was the better of the two, so go for it.

The box originally came with an angled bracket and dangled down on rubber bobbins between the coils.

The RITA that I had worked well but apparently the early version does have quite high current requirements. The original spun covers for the pick up are pretty ugly things in my opinion although in the day it was quite a useful way of showing off that one had trick parts.

The RITA that I had worked well but apparently the early version does have quite high current requirements. The original spun covers for the pick up are pretty ugly things in my opinion although in the day it was quite a useful way of showing off that one had trick parts.

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I don't really mind the square cover, but there is a fellow on eBay selling deep original style covers to fit the RITA.

Actually, I like the RITA and use one on my cafe racer. Mine has been ultra reliable for over 20 years. I have picked up a couple new units and quite a few parts, amplifiers, reluctors, etc. The amplifier mounts between the coils on a sheet metal plate by means of two rubber isolators.

tricatcent said:

Lucas Rita

Does anyone still run these. I think I will try one, because I have aquired a few of them. If so where do you mount the amplifier box. It seems to big to mount near the coils.

Nigel

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Whatever you do, don't rigid mount it. I did that by mistake on our Norton streamliner, and the vibrtion eventually destroyed it. We wasted a whole meet at Bonneville chasing the problem until the box finally failed completely, and we realized what had happened.

I had used Rita ignitions on street Nortons for years, with absolutely no problems, but they were all rubber mounted. When I was putting the streamliner together, I just didn't realize rubber mounting was required. After the failure, I read the instructions, and they are very clear about the box needing to be mounted with the rubber isolation mounts. Live and learn.

Ken

Mount the amplifier between the coils on the rubber mounts and it will work well - it gets a nice blast of fresh air there. My 72' Roadster has had the RITA system since 86 or 87 with no problems yet, and one or two kick cold starts.

I have ben using a Rita on my '71 since the mid 80's. Unit is mounted on the back of the air filter, in the battery compartment.

I do seem to recall an issue with the connections on the sender unit, but, once soldered up & insulated, no problems.

Are spares available now or are they just too old?

How does the advance curve compare with boyer etc?

Bob.

the rita is a VERY reliable EI but DO NOT use the smaller Harley or other type of duel outlet coil's.the rita is a high current draw because it keeps the coils on for 90 some percent duty cycle and it WILL burn up the above mentioned coils. I just recently switched to a trispark and sold my old rita and love the new EI. if you need a rita repaired dyno Dave will do it
http://atlanticgreen.com/ .

Are spares available now or are they just too old?

How does the advance curve compare with boyer etc?

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Spares are not readily available, however, Dave Comeau can do some repair on amplifiers which is the most likely part to fail. If Dave doesn't have the part you need, pm me and I'll see if I can help. I have collected RITA pieces where I can and have a couple completed used units and a couple new ones as well.

Dave has plotted the advance curve on his distributor machine and it shows the curve has faster advance than both points and the Boyer and certainly more of a true curve than the centrifugal advance on the points plate. This can be seen here:

http://atlanticgreen.com/boyerexposed.htm

I'd sure like to see similar plots done on the same equipment with Tri-Spark and Pazon. I'll wager that Dave would be willing to test them if someone has one they could loan him. :wink: