Cadillac 331/365/390 Aftermarket Distributors

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Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: UK
Posts: 6


</TD><TD class=alt1 id=td_post_2345301 style="BORDER-RIGHT: #e5e5e5 1px solid"><!-- icon and title --> Re: caddy magneto
<HR style="COLOR: #e5e5e5; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #e5e5e5" SIZE=1><!-- / icon and title --><!-- message -->This conversion is dead easy to do, and cheap !

I run a warm 331 in my Allard (ancient US/UK Hotrod !). I had real trouble with mis-fires and bad running and changed just about everything except that old Delco dizzy. She had to go, but as you guys have been saying...mags are hard to find. I took a gamble and bought the first new cheapish Mallory dizzy on ebay, hoping i could make it fit........turned out to be perfect, because it was a bit bigger everywhere, so a lathe could do all the work. Here goes.......

Mallory "25" series dual point distributor part# 2555101 H fits Ford 62-80 (ie common as hell) and is LH rotation.

Strip the thing out so you can machine the separate components, and your old Delco job so you can measure everything.The locating shoulder below the main flange needs to be turned down a bit, to fit the hole in the block. (I threw an "o" ring away at this stage!!). The bottom of the main stem needs to be sawn off then faced up in the lathe to the same length as the Cad stem. (NB critical dimension...take care !). Then shorten the drive shaft and turn it down at the end for the Cad drive dog, and carefully drill the hole for the roll pin.

Use the old dizzy to measure everything, and the distances are critical because when you clamp the dizzy to the block, there is a little curvy thrust washer between the drive dog and the bottom face of the stem, which needs to compress a bit but not go tight. Get it wrong and you'll either get sloppy drive, or a nasty squeeking sound and then sloppy drive !

Do all that and enjoy whoppin' huge sparks on time every time and lovely quality spare bits till you're old and grey (if youre not already !)

Toms Tech Tips
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Good info! Thanks Tom!!!

 

Did you ever get a pic of this conversion?

 

Back from the dead. Any pics or memory of what distributor you used?

 

Saw this on interwebs this weekend



Kinda steep I think


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geez!

 

Great thread so far,thanks for all the info.

 

I bought this off the web last week... it’s a Pontiac, but it has correct rotation, and does not look like it will be to hard to modify to fit into the cad block... just got to round up the right gear

Edit: found a crack in the cap late yesterday... now on the hunt for a good cap to replace

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I finally got all the pieces to put the Cadillac dizzy together






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Nice. Caddy distributors are made from unobtanium.

 

Roothawg

You got that right... I had to buy 4 to get enough parts to build this one


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I just wish they made a new standard style distributor with hei innerds.

 

There are hei distributors on ebay for sale for this motor.

 

Yeah, but they are Charlie China stuff. I don't put a lot of faith in $39 distributors.

I went out and looked and it appears that Pertronix has started making their own version. I wonder if it is just a rebranded China verdsion with a Pertronix Flamethrower II module?
https://www.jegs.com/i/PerTronix/751/D170700/10002/-1