Technical 1932 Ford model 18 "tall coil tribute" with helmet distributor

With a rare 1932 Ford Model 18, 221 engine, it's a shame to install a newer distributor than the original one, such as a "crab", if you want to preserve the car's original look, as is my case. But in today's traffic, the old 6V tall coil distributor (nowhere to be found either!) just doesn't cut it. Especially with almost double the compression, a sharper camshaft (here, a Schneider S-100), 2 Stromberg carburetors and a 4-inch crankshaft. Apart from the weak spark at the plugs, the advance curve of the old distributors is not ideal. I'm not looking to go beyond 4,000 rpm, because with babbit mains, that's not the point. But to get a perfect advance curve, a powerful spark and a distributor with no worries about adjusting the points, all in a "Helmet" distributor body is impossible to find on the market. What's more, as I have a mechanical rev counter from the '30s, I also needed a drive for the rev counter cable. So I made all this in my backyard. Isn't that the way rodders used to do it?

Here is the final product:



I have no intention of selling this/these distributor(s) but my goal here is to share my experience with you. Especially since my 32' is driving like never before!

I'd like to thank Clive from Stromberg97, who was very helpful and supplied me with the parts I needed to transform my distributor. If any reader would like to go down the same, Clive is willing to sell the necessary parts... but you should know that there's a LOT of work involved. However, a good workshop, good music, a few beers and it's all in some day's work...I am not so familiar with this website and got no help from the Jalopy guys, even if I asked (never answered) , so please be patient with my updates. I'll list the parts you need and I'll show, gross, how to do.

Here some first pics, to start with:


Here you can see the Lumenition Optronic system. I also made another distributor with the E-Fire Stromberg magnetic system. Since I am an old British Car fan, I am more used to Lumenition units. However, the Stromberg unit, much smaller, works well too! Inside the "cup", left on the photo, there is the Stromberg mechanical advance system.



On this image, you can see the Bosch Blue Coil (painted black) 12V, positioned upside down, with the bespoke brush holder that I made out of Polyoxymethylene (very good electric properties). The brush is directly inserted in the coil with a special spring (out of a ink pen !): 1 cable less!

And here is my car:

To be continued...

 

"Isn't that the way rodders used to do it?"

ANSWER: YES! Well done, indeed.

 

Some really cool "imagineering" going on here - congrats on a great product design and the success it has brought your engine!

 

Looks terrific, the work you did with the coil and the car!
Tom

 

Thank you buddies. I try to do things the right way. Seems I was not too wrong till now!

 

Beautiful country, thanx for the tour. Did you machine the coil cover from Delrin? Do you have any images of the process?
Tom

 

Looks great! Thanks for sharing

 

That looks fantastic great work!

 

The very sart of my work was the mechanical tachometer drive. The only few kits that were available at the time (and I thought I could copy) were those krankshaft operated and implementing many complicated parts):
Or those (water pump pulley operated):

The water pump solution must have been complicated since its revving action is not the same as the crank or the camshaft... so one would have needed a "gearbox" to convert the revs to match the engine revs...

Below my first modification tentative (ugly welding...) : the tachometer cable pick-up welded on the stock helmet, along with the modern coil kit, however still with the points. This was the starting point of my transformation, since the mechanical tachometer was functioning with much satisfaction: simple drive directly from the distributor rotor, no need of any gear ratio change, straight forward drive from the distributor to the gauge. I wonder why nobody ever thought of this simple set-up. The only issue was to have enough space behind the radiator, in order to be able to fit and remove the distributor without having to flush and remove the radiator. Milling down parts to the minimum, it was finally easy!

 

What you need is an Autometer 90° angle drive adapter


part # 990414
the big advantage is that you can select LH or RH exit, and also CW or CCW output. You also need a square drive peg that will fit into the angle drive on one side, and into the nose of the distributor shaft, on the other end. Below, drilling the stock shaft, that will receive a press-fit round brass sleeve, with a square hole inside, to accept the square drive mentioned before


Here a close up shot the finished job on the shaft tip. See that I let the brass sleeve protrude 0.08"

 

I see the price of mechanical drive tachometers skyrocketing in the future! Thanx for sharing.
Tom

 

^^^^
A square drive incenter of crank, & a cable to tac

 

Amazing sound and the town... timeless!! Thanks for sharing!

 

Thank you for messages. Answer to Tom: No Delrin: I simply modified the "dome" of a 3 bolt 1933 - 1936 coil and inserted a Bosch 12V through.
Below see first mock-up. No internal parts yet (I mean: no nylon bush to hold coil in place).

 

Working / milling / drilling bakelite is a real pleasure: easy, forgiving and it smells good! Below, working on the bakelite coil cap and coil base.
1933 - 1936 Ford coil "cap" opened-up for a "snug fit" to the Bosch 12V coil's external diameter.

 

...emptying a coil is very messy... at first you have to dig into the mix of wires and black "glue", and steel structure with screwdriver, pliers, chisel and hammer, and screwdriver again, and so on. Care must be taken not to break the bakelite "cap" At last, you leave the cap upside down filled with gasoline for 48 hours: it finishes superclean, without any remaining of thick sticky material...

 

Here is the final set-up (for the coil only): Left to right:
33-36 bakelite coil base, Bosch 12V coil, white nylon sleeve, 33-36 bakelite cap, aluminum cover with appropriate decal (for the fun...)


Note that I inserted a strong 1 3/16" dia magnet in the bottom of the aluminum cover, so that when I slide it onto the coil, it stays in place. Since the coil body is also in aluminum, I glued a 1/64" thick steel disc at the bottom of the coil.

 

Great idea and execution. Thanks for sharing

 

Thanks for sharing your complete build - very nice workmanship on all the pieces/parts! It looks like you used two 33-36 coils as the donors for the process?

 

Hi there: no, I used the coil that was with the car when I purchased it, 4 years ago: I simply drilled the 3 brass rivets and separated the cap from the base and started the job from this point.
Below is a close up photo of the inside of the bakelite cap, with the nylon sleeve that I milled. The purpose of this sleeve is to sandwich the coil's neck and secure it tight against the bakelite base, and thus be sure that the brush makes good and constant contact with the brass annular collar of the original Ford distributor rotor... The vertical slot that you can see is cut in nylon because the bakelite cap has a kind of reinforcement (not visible because of low light)...

 

here you can see the detail of the brush and its holder.


and here the part # for the brush:

... I guess any other would do the job. I had this in stock since I am a long time British cars fan... ;-) and a little of british blood in an american 32' flatty will not harm anyway...

 

Next week I show the Stromberg mechanical advance...

 

1932 Ford "helmet" distributor drilling and preparing for welding the AutoMeter angle drive:



Below is the final set-up with the Stromberg E-Fire option. In this configuration, you have only 2 wires coming out of the body. It is extremely discreet, performant and all hidden inside the helmet. Please not that the "holding plate" of the E-Fire ignition (the red plastic parts shown below) has been made out of mild steel: the original Ford plate (that was holding th epoints) does not match.


Below are the 2 other options: stock points (left a Bubba's reconditioned unit, however much improved with Stromberg's advance mechanism and deletion of the vacuum brake). Right my Lumenition solution, still with the better Stromberg advance mechanism. Here too, the vacuum is deleted. However, this specific unit does not carry the upside down "1932" coil...

 

Below are the parts purchased from Stromberg 97. In fact, this complete shaft comes from a brand new Stromberg E-Fire Crab distriburor. What you need is only what is inside the blue circle. Upon request, Clive is willing to sell these spares for ver yreasonable price.

Then you have to dismantle completely these parts:



Below the Stromberg parts with enlarged holes to slide upon the stock Ford rotor shaft:


Below the weight's seats or bases, welded onto the base plate. Note that Stromberg cleverly arranged an advance curve stopper, by means of 2 hex screws: you can mechanically block the overall maximum advance: really clever and refined. Here you see the set up at maximum (the rectangular windows of both plates are fully opened).

And here all parts mounted on the stock Ford rotor shaft. One should notice, and this is very particular to the early Flathead V8: when advance occurs, the advance mechanism acts on the points ONLY (or in my case, on the optronic or magnetic sensor), thus allowing the spark to occur at desired taime, BUT the rotor (or chopper) DOES NOT modify its turning speed: the latter is FIXED on the camshaft! So the spark travels from the rotor to the plots of the inner caps, even if the rotor brass contacts are not right in front of their matching plot. I think that Ford considered that it was acceptable considering that the cars at the time had less advance than nowadays. However, on my engine, with maximum total advance of 28°, the bigger gap between the rotor and the plot is compensated by the heavy duty 12V coil ! It works really very well.

 

Engine rpm Distributor advance (engine is x2 + static of 4 degs)

550 0
750 2
800 2.5
1000 4.5
1250 6
1400 6.5
1750 7
2000 8
2250 9
2600 11

 

to avoid misfires and spark going from rotor to shaft (seems quite common on early V8 Fords), I paint the shaft with Glyptal and then wrap the center recessed part of the shaft with electric tape. Not very fancy but who cares?

 

You ever watch a movie, read a book, listen to a song so deeply beautiful that it wants to make you cry tears of joy?

This thread has that quality.

 

Thanks Ricky... appreciate your poetic comments ! And appreciate that some rare people still enjoy true, simple home made mechanics ! Chris

 

Ignition timing is a fundamental issue (and sadly often overlooked), and specifically for the Ford Flathead engine. Numerous forums and websites talk about this topic, and notably about the question of whether it's advisable to maintain vacuum or not.

Usually, an engine needs ignition advance when revving up and at higher revs. However, any Flathead enthusiast, when dismantling an original "Helmet" distributor, will understand that Henry Ford built his distributors precisely with the opposite function in mind: the higher the engine speed, the lower the vacuum (and the lower the vacuum, the more active the ignition advance brake). In other words, the higher the engine speed, the lower the ignition advance: the exact opposite of what we're looking for nowadays ! At constant rpm, on the other hand, e.g. 2000 RPM, the vacuum is "good", which releases the ignition advance brake and generates advance. In my opinion, but the question is open , the cars of the 30s drove slowly, had heavy flywheels, in order to maintain engine speeds when cornering without changing gear. Cars were (over) loaded with passengers and goods, and made most of their journeys on unpaved roads. This meant a need for maximum torque at very low revs. This was made possible by the minimal advance. What happened beyond 2500 RPM was not a criteria.

Nowadays, everything has changed: our old Fords, now sometimes lighter, (much) more powerful, more efficient, and carrying at best only 2 people for pure pleasure, and no longer a whole family with weapons and luggage, benefit from engine oils on an unprecedented scale, optimal octane fuels, 12V, high-performance coils, and engines capable of revs unheard of back then. What's more, our roads have become perfect. As a result, needs have changed, and aftermarket distributor advance curves have nothing in common with the old Ford curves. Particularly at speeds above 1500 RPM. That's all the benefit of these new distributors.

Thanks in advance to the experts for correcting me if I've made any mistakes in my assessment above (I'm only an amateur mechanic), but what I can assure you is that my car has been TRANSFORMED since I installed my in-house distributor. Now, as written in the introduction, I still have the Ford's original engine (very rare matching numbers car) and as I'm afraid of damaging the babbitt mains, I don't rev above 3,000 - 3,500 rpm. I still have the original mechanical brakes (rebuilt), a 1939 3-speed gearbox and a Columbia axle. It's all well balanced, although I'm thinking of switching to hydraulics.

Comments, corrections and clarifications welcome !