A little over a year ago I purchased a hot rod project that an old fellow had decided to give up on. It is a 29 Model A roadster with a 1948 59A flathead. I spent about five months slowly getting it ready to run...wiring, assembling and installing the body, etc.. Then I started driving it and working the bugs out and I am having a blast learning about these things. I am new to Fords and new to flatheads so I have had to figure a lot of things out. Now on to my current question. The previous owner had converted the distributor on the 59A to use an 8BA distributor and I really wish he hadn't. I was wondering how much effort it would be to convert it back to the original front mounted distributor. I know I would have to change the timing cover and I am assuming I would need to change the cam....what else would be involved and is it worth it? You guys have been a great help to me so far, thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Glad to hear you are having a blast and learning along the way. you may get lucky and it could be a bolt on timing gear for the side mount distributor. These were or are still available. If not, the timing cover and cam for sure and the timing and crank gears should be replaced since the 59AB gear set has different thrust than the 8BA gear set.
You'll have to change back to the older cam. Front distributor driven off slot in front end of cam. The 8ba distributor is driven by a gear on front end of cam. You may be lucky as once you could buy a gear and add it to your old cam.
As Banjorear said, you might get really lucky and it has a bolt on gear converting the early cam to a late style. Won’t know until you pull the cover off. Also be aware that the belts on some late fan setups would run right where an early distributor would sit. Can you tell us why you want the early distributor instead of the late?
Lots of info here. Example with pics of going TO instead of BACK. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/8ba-distributor-in-a-59-a.1037356/ https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...ins-or-bubbas-electronic.764624/#post-8493191
Another thought and a lot less work would be to get a flat cap Mallory dizzy for an SBC and have someone like Charlie NY or others turn it down and recurve it for use with the flathead. This would give you a vintage looking distributor without all of the work of swapping over all those parts and pulling the cam.
Great question! I have a crab on my '48. It works great, but it's a PIA to work on in the truck. I had it rebuilt by Bubba, who did a fantastic job. My '29 has an 8BA and it's got a Mallory flat top dual point. Looks very vintage and I'm really looking forward to being able to work on it without pulling the radiator out.
You are supposed to remove it for service, not try to do anything while its installed. Two bolts and its off, you can do it in the dark
If you have a stock Load-a-Matic, take @banjorear's advice and put in a better distributor (both of his choices are excellent). It'll be a lot easier and you'll be glad you did.
As a GM guy who now has a 59A and is piling parts for a future roadster, are there any advantages of converting over to the later 8ba one? looks? works better? easier to adjust/ play with/ parts availability? Planning on full fendered with a hood and i like the way the stock one looks just fine but if theres good reason to convert
The main problem with an 8BA in an early roadster is it's greater length over the 59A. The post distributor caused everything to be pushed forward a couple of inches, room that is sorely needed in an early roadster (especially if you want to run a fan). I prefer the later distributor setup over the earlier ones for many reasons but room isn't one of them.
@Stooge , the dizzy you show is the 2 bolt Ford with the later "rabbit ears" cap. Switching to the earlier crab cap will gain you about 1 1/2 " clearance . You just need the cap, rotor, and different hold down clips. You most likely will have to trim off the fan flange on the crank pulley, and then run a fan on the generator
Interesting, thank you for the explanation. I thought the cap looked different than the others i had seen, but sometimes you dont know what you dont know! I have some cars to finish before i really start doing anything with the A, but good to know what to keep a look out for with adding parts to the pile.
My reasoning for going back to the stock setup is to try to gain enough room to run a mechanical fan instead of electric...I will probably just go ahead and stick with the electric for now.
I have a C59A that had the original crab style, but wanted it to look even more “vintage”, so I swapped it for the “helmet” style. Personally, I don’t care for the later style “modern” distributor, but didn’t know the distributor on those engines could be swapped back to the earlier style distributors. Didn’t know either that they stuck out more. Good to know.
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