Hey Hamb. I'm having a hard time finding any info on this Mallory. Seems that the cam that opens the points has been played with, so a way to confirm this and possibly a points rotor phasing procedure for this seemingly early Mallory for a model A would be helpful. It’s a model Y2 type 11a serial number EMX807. Are point still available for this unit? What is the procedure for installing wires in the cap? I current have the plug wires rigged up to function, but I can find any information on how to make the wires stay in the cap. Can I get a new rotor? Where can I find info on this old bird?
If the points are not significantly burned, you can just file them with a points file, and use them again. I put a lot of miles on Mallory distributors and never replaced points. 11 is for a Model A, as you thought.
It appears my “rubber seal” is pretty old and dried out, I added oring to pinch the wires -and it seems to sort of work.
No, your rubber seal is missing. It's a sheet of rubber with holes in it, with a raised edge around each hole. someone tried replacing it with 5 grommets. bummer (I think the part number for the rubber part is 24012, but good luck finding one) (or 4010 for the whole cap assembly?)
I added part numbers to my last post. Hard to find that stuff for fours. you can find them for 8 cylinders occasionally
well, then I guess you're not missing the seal...I just didn't notice that it was there. Take it out, look at it closely where the wires go through. It might need to be replaced. Or possibly you could add a thin sleeve at each wire for better grip, like heat shrink tube or something
If that plate just holds the leads from falling out (it looks like the little spikes on the other plate go into the wire /carbon to make contact) , you may be able to silicon or epoxy the leads into the top plate (if you can't find a replacement).
I wonder if your cloth covered wires are too small a diameter to work properly with the Mallory cap. The proper ignition wires will be 7mm, or .276 and if there’s clearance at the cap it’s probably there at the rubber too. Looking at your photo I see clearance at the insulation.
Is there an 8 cylinder Mallory cap that would fit this distributor housing? Maybe you could plug the wires into every other hole, find some rubber plugs to seal the unused holes and run it that way. Assuming that the cap height is the same, uses the same mounting hardware, and matches up properly with the rotor.
This guy had two caps for sale. Maybe he still has them. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ibutor-ya11a-and-extra-caps-for-sale.1305507/
I think whoever commented on the fabric wires being too small in diameter might be on the right track. I use Packard 440 from The Brillman Company on all of my Mallory retro-fits, and everything works fine. Between the way a properly setup Mallory cap grabs the wires and Rajah spark plug terminal snap on the spark plugs, everything is very positive. Either throw a calipers on your wires to check them or The Brillman Company makes the improved fabric covered wires as well.
Dang I love this place! Vintage aftermarket product question and there are instructions, part numbers, a listing and associated parts help. Jim, you are a treasure!
I measured the wires vs some others I have laying around. .236 vs .307 I’ll make a new set with the thicker wires, I expect that will solve the looseness.
I mentioned 7mm wires earlier, your .307 wire is 8mm and wasn’t in use when Mallory was producing the two piece caps. If you really want to use the 8mm you will need to open up the holes in the cap.
It's easier just to get new wires instead of butchering a hard to find Mallory cap. I'll bet a new set of proper plug wires will solve everything.
Yes 7 mm wires. Old style Mallory points like yours are very hard to find. But you can replace your old points plate with a later model Mallory dual points plate (Chevy etc.) which are easy to find, rotation on the Chev is opposite to yours but doesn't matter, Mallory made these to go CW & CCW. Remove one set of points, use the 4 cyl. rotor and a V8 cap (4004) with stepped rotor terminals, check it rotates cleanly, time points opening to TDC and you are good to go. Centrifugal advance will work, the 2 brass fittings on the body are for vacuum advance and vacuum wiper hose fittings, a cap gasket will be required if you use these. Good luck.
A Mallory 2 piece 8 cyl cap has the wire holes clocked in different than the 4 cyl cap. The 2 hold down screws near the center screw things up. You can put a V8 cap on a 4 cyl distrib, BUT the cam that opens the points is not clocked the same, it would fire in between the wire locations.
BRJNelson, Yes, just changing a 4 cyl. cap for an 8 cyl. cap won't work but there is more to it. The rotors locating tab, to fit on the Mallory cam point differently on 4cyl to 8 cyl rotors, also the 4 cyl. rotors distance from the cap carbon brush to the outer edge is longer. Changing to the 8 cyl. points plate as above and using 1 set of points also changes the geometry and clocks the 4 cyl. rotor to a cap terminal (at points just opening) on an 8 cyl. Mallory 4004 cap (with stepped terminals to suit the 4 cyl. rotor) but not a 4 cyl. cap. I have just done this on a 33 Model B. Maybe the other points (from a double life) I removed would not clock so well, still playing with the Mallory, but for now my motor runs great.
What about using some adhesive type heat shrink fitted to the leads in just the cap engagement areas. That could possibly bring them up to the desired 7mm diameter.
The part number for the center pivot point set was 24205 and, yes, they are hard to find today, as they haven't been made for decades.
I would strongly suggest doing whatever is needed to get this distributor working in it's original configuration instead of trying to modify it and possibly ruining it. As "Squirrel" said, "dressing" the points with a file usually works well. It already has the wrong plug wires. In my opinion, redrilling holes, moving the cam on the shaft and twisting things can only result in a bad outcome. If it ends up being impossible to fix, then, and only then, consider fucking with it.
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