double or twin distributor drive

Hoping someone here can help me with this. Im looking for something that can drive two distributors off the front of an engine. What I want is something simular to the Pete Jackson/ Summers Brothers front distributor drives. I know that something simular used to be made for the Harley shovelhead with two mags (Cant remember name.). I cant use a belt drive or crank trigger on this, or the two distributors connected as a cross shaft type assembly. I currently have two Summers brothers BB front mount setups, but one is aluminum and one is cast iron, set up for the blower fuel pump drive. May be interested in a machine shop that can build or modify to make my setup work on an LT1 type engine. Thanks All

 

Like this? Or like this but off the cam?

 

We had one off the front of the crank of our Hemi, in a funny car, that was made by www.RCDEngineering.com Very finely crafted pieces.

 

I need something that is gear driven in a "V" shape. It cant be side by side. I know it can be done, because I've seen it on a Harley. I know that the LT1 engines can be modified to have a distributor in the back, but that wont work for me. I have to be able to drive it off the off the Camshaft, which drove the optispark.

 

At one time you could buy what you want to put two Wico 4 cylinder mags on a V8-60. Don't know about now. You might check with Boston Gear for the gears necessary and invest in a chunk of aluminum for the rest. Thats how I got the side by side drive on the yellow banger.

 

PM LoudPedal on here. He makes a twin mag (Wico Type) mount for Flathead Ford. Maybe this is something that you can adapt to your need

See the 5th picture down on this posting

 

Assuming that you don't want to make something yourself. And you really, really want this thing. And you have money to burn, you could try Cliff Williamson in Temple City at 626-452-8081. Or Wilcap. Or Roto-Faze. Or maybe a local machine shop.

 

I believe we have a WINNER. Nice looking piece. Two Wicos. Neat.

 

Dave,
The closest thing I can think of would be Kinsler's dual drive setup as used with Lucas injection on the old Can-Am cars.
Picture here: http://www.kinsler.com/handbook222.html

The dual drive is shown with a fuel pump out the side, but I know for a fact that their shorty dist will run off the side drive as well. The car in my avatar uses one. So you could have one dist in the top, and one out the side. It wont be centered on the block using your Summers front drive, but I don't know of any way around that.

I run a Summers front drive on my BBC supermod engine. A word of warning... I don't know where you got yours, but be careful as many of those were built with reverse rotation dist. drive gears. I bought my unit used and found out the hard way. If you need a new drive gear, RBS superchargers sells them; but the thrust bearing stack height is different than what the original Summers gear needs.

 

Thanks to all, I would really like to use a dual distributor setup, I threw out the idea of the Harley dual magneto setup because that was the first setup I saw like what I need. I cant use the distributor off a distributor because it would clash with other componebts. It has to be a "V" shaft pattern. I learned about the Roto-Faze here, but like the dula magneto setup also shown (Which by they way looks "beu"t"full"), it is too bulky. If the "Wilcap" is a "V" drive I would be interested in seeing it. The dual drive mags are appearently used quite often on the panheads and look like they would be compact enough, however a new setup like that costs around 3 grand, the closest I got to one was on ebay and it went for almost 2 Grand used. At the current time I do not have what I need to make one. For thinking, two corvette tach drive distributor shafts being driven by another cut down shaft would work but clearance is an issue because the LT1 has the water pump that is also driven by a gear off the timing gear. I can move the wp out some by making shims/spacers from another pump I have, by not much as it will hit my fans/radiator.

 

My experiance with Harlys is that they have only two cylinders. Don't know why they would need two mags except one for each hole. So for your use that still leaves 6 cylinders that need spark. Or I am missing what?

 

I have spent some time thinking about this problem since I have an 8 plug 4cyl. Look at TF motorcycle, MSD makes a mount and I believe ARD mag, Gates poly-chain belt. Look into gilmer pullys and belts, stock car guys use them to drive oil and fuel pumps.

 

Something that is over my head here. For one thing I have never looked at any harley ignition. So that's a mystery to me. I am guessing they are a single plug head? Twin plug? Fire togeather or one trailing? Still don't see how it can help on a V8. If you look at the yellow banger up towared the top you can see a tooth belt drive for the oil and fuel pumps. Second distributer is driven off the primary distributer. Somewhat like a Top Fuel motor but with gears not a belt

 

At www.karata.com/magmetos.htm you will see the basic design that I want, but with two gm hei's, maybe I will have to make it myself, it doesn't have to be fancy or flashy because the water pump will cover most of it up. Maybe I will just have to build it myself, just im not a machinist.

 

2 spark plugs per cylinder on a LT1 ?

 

This one works: http://www.karata.com/magnetos.htm

You would have to figure out how to attach a GM distributor gear to the front of the cam, with a bearing to support the end, then use the gear to drive your distributors.
Also allow for lubrication of the gears and bearing.

 

Loudpedal posted this pic in another htread:

 

No, I just need to figure out how to put two distributors there. I have something else planed for the second distributor, but not to fire a spark plug. I cant put the distributor in the back of the LT1 intake because I put a second throttle body there to use the cowl induction. The distributors have to be in a "V" because of the air cleaner for the front throttle body.

 

The concept is the same, talk to loudpedal.
He might be able to help, or point you in the right direction.

 

That would not be hard to do, as the timing chain gear bolts to the camshaft. Simply take a timing gear, cut it down, press a peice of cold roll or such into it, cut the gear out of an old camshaft, drill a hole into it to press it onto the cold roll and adjust higth as needed, maybe put a bearring on the end of the cold roll, basically the same thing as I go in a Summers Brothers setup I got, but adjustable.

 

I PM'd him, hopefully he will help me. Im good on thinking this thing up, but scratching my head at how to get it done.

 

Yeah like a '49 Ford V8 with the gear on the cam snout. Thats what my 12 port GMC used. A 49 Ford gear on the end of the cam and on the distributer. They might not be as common now as they were then. But I bet you can still get them.

 

Ok, a SBC with 2 distributors, but 1 doesn't fire spark plugs... throttle bodies front and back, one pressurized by cowl induction, the other not...

Got any pictures of this creation, or is it a state secret? If so, I totally understand...

 

No its not a state secret, unless you consider that the va is to cheap to compensate their disabled veterans so they are to poor to be able to afford a camera or internet (I have to use the public library to do this), As money is tight because I cant work I have to very carefully choose where to allocate my resources. The second distributor will drive my fuel injection system for my LT1 intake. Im still trying to build it, so even If I had a camera, I couldn't do pictures as it is not finished. A freind of mine said he would put it on youtube when I got it running.

 

are you talking about the distributor for a GMC 702 ci V12, considered that, it wont work because there is not enough adjustment, thanks though

 

I may be missing something here ,but why would you need a distributor to drive your fuel injection system. If you would explain what you are trying to accomplish, maybe someone could come up with a good idea.

 

No I am just talking about an old 1952 GMC 6 cylinder that I ran with a Howard 12 port head and a Wayne Hourning front cover that used a '49-'53 Ford/Merc distributer drive gear set to drive the Vertex I had. The cover also had mounts and drives for an oil pump, Offenhouser water pump, and injector pump. all gear driven. No belts. It's was just an idea for what gears you might look for. Or Hilborn had a drive that went in the distributer location and piggy backed the distributer on top of the fuel pump. Going to be hard to get the water pump in the stock location. Two cylinder Motorcyles that I have owned didn't have a distributer. Just two sets of points. Points open, coil fires. No need for a distributer. Only one place for the spark to go.

 

Ok I now understand you don't want two distributers, but a distributer and a injector pump? If you go back to post #2, the yellow banger, you can see that down low on the left side of the engine is a belt driven stack of an oil pump and an injectior pump. Running at cam shaft speed. The timed pullys are from a junk yard import cam drive and were free. The belt cheap from an industrial supply. Could you do something like this?