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I've possibly found a spare distributor for my 412 running D jet injection and was curious to find out what the letter at the end of the part number denotes and more importantly does this letter restrict its application.

VW number 022 905 205 E and Bosch number 0 231 172 007

If it is compatible then I'll keep it set up with a set of points in the car in case the Pertronix packs up away from home.

Obviously the easy thing to do is to have a look at the number of the one fitted to my car already but the car is currently covered in cold white stuff that is a very rare sight in this part of the UK!!

022 905 205 E
0 231 172 007 "this seems to be the actual part used on 1970 914's, two '70 1.7L owners have verified"
quote from Paul B Anders homepage.

/Lars S

Thanks Lars,

Does that mean it would not work on my car?

hy,,wshawn,, if you look for the exact distributor for the 1.7 mt4 ( différent for auto,trs) the model is 022-905-205 p,, with the no. 917on the advence arm ,,the model ,,205 J ,,can bee good too with 700to15000rpm on idle and 22-27 deg.adv. to 3000rpm ,,you can look in this forum ,,,for vaccum advence ,,albert

If your car is a 1,7l D-jet manual I would consider it as a good spare.

Lars S

Thanks guys, my car is a 1.7LE Djet with 4 speed manual.

More often than not, 1.7L D-jet in 914's and late 411/early 412 came with 022 905 205 P. Along with that distributor came the advance unit with #917 stamped on the arm (dual vacuum) ...with an adjusting lock screw built in for the advance side. The other variation I saw of that was 905 205 P with a single adavnce unit...one of which I have brand new at home. I will write the arm number down tonight.

But yes...the "E" will work fine as well. The differences in these distributors are two fold:
(a) They have different advance curves. Most of this is simply done by different spring with otherwise the same weights.
(b) because of the different advance curves....the distributor will have a slightly different body position when installed in the engine.....when it is timed by the factory method (27BTDC @ 3500 rpm).
What this causes is a change in injection timing. But since all cars used the same camshaft timing....what changes in these dizzys is a very slight repositioning of the FI trigger cam. If you mike them out with refrence to body position you can see it...but usually the difference in distributor body position to the eye is not huge. It can cause rough running if you just drop it in and static time it...and assume its the same as the one you took out.


So....you can use this dizzy one of two ways: (1) You can map out the timing points and exact body position to replicate performance of 205 P to 205 E. Put a scribe mark on your 205 P and a punch mark on the case where things line up. Then scribe the location on the 205 E after strobe timing so you know where to simply drop the dizzy in for correct results on the side of the road. Its pretty simple..I just make it sound hard (2) You can swap in a full set of 205P springs and settings....and then test time it to make sure that it times out the same. Then only the fuel trigers will be slightly off. This is usually not a huge deal. Just verify that they are not fare enough offto cause serious fuel pressure fluctuations at idle and you are good to go. Ray

I think that option 1 sounds like the easiest option Ray, thanks for your input

and just to clarify, out of interest, the letter at the end denotes what vacuum can is fitted?

It is a revision number. It notes that something inside of that dizzy has been changed. Whetehr it denotes a vacuum can change I do not know. Of course, there can also be vacuum can's whose part numbers and revisions denote that they belong with a certain distributor like 205E....see what I mean? It may also be that an advance can of a certain arm number may have bee nexpresly manufactured for a specific revision of distributor....like 205 P or E. Since I have seen 205P's with other can's other than a #917...I doubt teh letter code denotes a specific can. Ray

Ray is correct the letter indicates the revision of the part. They would start with A and work thru to Z. an E woulld be earlier than a P. The letter would not indicate anything specific, just a change of the part.

Thanks for that, learn something new every day

wshawn,, i have in my hand the 2 model ,,205 E and 205 P,,and i have look the angle deg. on the cam for each dist. and they are différent of 3/8" on the point rotor ..you can see my pict on samba gallery,,

the différence with the 205 E and 205 P ,, the 205 P geeve appx 4 deg.more adveance wy???,,albert

I have both of those as well. I will map them again tonight, but its not that one gives 4 degrees MORE advance. Its that in order to set each distributor up so that the FI triggers are in the right position when the timing is set up to 27 BTDC via the strobe method....the body had to be adavnce in location by four degrees.

Both dizzy should give the same trigger point angle when set up to 27 BTDC at 2500 rpm. To do that one body had to have 4* more angle. I "think" it is actually done either by the position of the hole for the drive dog pin...or in the upper distributor work itself.

The real difference that makes this needed....IIRC...is that the speed of centrifugal adavnce is different due to weights and springs. I will check it out tonight. Ray

hy,,RAY ,, i put my 2 dist. side by side and the angle of the shaft ( i d,t have the exact name for this gear ) btw the alf moon at the end of the rotor is appx, 4 deg. différent with the 205 E,,I HAVE PICT IF YOU WANT,, to see that ,, i d,t know wy ,, it is différent ,,