Alright fellas, this is not for me, it is for a friend who is deep in the weeds and needs reference photos before he starts cutting, drilling, and regretting things. I have seen this setup a handful of times, just enough to know it is real, and just enough to be driven insane by the fact that I cannot find a single clear photo of it now. Here is what we are looking for. A crab distributor mounted on an indexing plate, with a cable system that runs to the ****pit so the driver can reach down and bump the timing from the seat. Anybody have images of one, or a link, or even a photo out of an old magazine. My first p*** at searching turned up nothing but ghosts.
I had a 65 chevy pickup when I was a teenager that had one of these on it https://www.ebay.com/itm/196456511144
Ryan: One of the early versions of the Kong Championship distributor is set-up this way. I unfortunately don't have any info on it, but hopefully someone does.
I'm really interested in what you uncover. I'm trying to envision a timing plate being loose enough to allow it to move without it being so loose that the timing becomes erratic. I'm envisioning it's moving the point plate inside the housing.
So the distributor was mounted to the lead plate with locking nuts just tight enough to allow the distributor to rotate and the cable went from the distributor to a bracket mounted on a timing plate bolt, through the firewall, and to a bracket under the dash. I remember the cable having some sort of a locking mechanism. Yeah, that is cool.
Pardon my OT intrusion..........while you're looking, I've been trying for some time to find a magazine article that shows a flathead powered car with a crank/cable affair to drive a remotely mounted ?generator? under the car, I don't even own a flatty but it has eluded me for a long time. Preciate it.
Picturing something like a screw jack , used by machinists to make infinite adjustments. if the screw portion was hollow , distributor shaft drops through , and with a lever or thumb screw in the ****pit . you would need something resembling a geared “ pump” or the likes as with the distributor mounted up front a cable would be the only way to adjust it, would need something in place to keep it “ locked in”
My dad talked about doing that on his modified stock car back in the 50s, said you could bump the timing for a couple laps and it would get hot and have to back in down again.
That screw jack is pretty and would probably be very accurate. I could se just a morse cable with a small wheel handle under the dash and a screw on the other end attached to an arm on the Dist. In all but the absolute sharp edge, it would simply need to swing 10-15 degrees and a degree or 2 of slop would be fine enough.
Not too much help, but ChatGPT referenced this link when I asked this question: “Kong Championship adjustable distributor for Ford 59A flathead” There isn’t a modern production “Kong Championship adjustable distributor” that you can simply buy new for a Ford 59A Flathead V8 — what Kong distributors were are historic hot-rod parts from the 1940s–50s built by Charles “Kong” Jackson, often with dual points and an external cable-type timing control that allowed the driver to manually advance/retard timing from a knob or cable at the firewall. These are very rare collectible pieces today, not current aftermarket production items. Fuel Curve+1 What the Original Kong Distributors Were Kong Jackson was an early hot-rod parts maker who built ignition distributors with dual points and cable advance for flathead Fords and other engines. These offered more control than stock units and were used in dry-lake and early race applications. Fuel Curve These units are collector pieces today and occasionally show up in the vintage parts market or on sites like eBay but are not actively manufactured now. Facebook https://fuelcurve.com/kong-jackson/
No help from me, but I have an old English motorcycle with a magneto and advance/retard lever. I love being able to change timing a little. My HD XLCH Sportster, too, but was always in a hurry back in those days.
Came stock from the factory and worked really well on Knuckle and Panhead Harleys, but we were moving the whole distributor
The cycle car I've been working on moves the cam's for the points in the magneto to adjust the timing. The cam's ring is on the outside of the points not the shaft like normal Dizzy's - the points spin with the armature. But probably no help if you are looking for a specific item. Can get photos at work tomorrow if needed. (Dinner time now)
Nice find Mark. I love the ingenuity these fellas came up with to get what ever performance advantage they could. Sort of a Flux Capacitor of its time.
Are you or you friend looking for a vintage Performance made part Or Ideal how to do ? I would use a fine tooth clamp on housing with worm gear , Turn nob with resistance so you could feel pretty much each degree ,, would only need 1- 14 teeth 1 tooth per deg & few extra for worm gear to max ,,, Have not did the math just given an ideal. Or same way thinking on inside just on points plate , more micro gear , Or Lever Soild SS wire with notches measured out per 1 deg per notch ..
Then there’s this thread from here on the HAMB, ChatGPT found when I asked for images. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/rare-flathead-ignition-pics.697704/page-2 Some images ChatGPT found.
Then there’s this thread from the Barn where they mention the cable lever setup. Here are the pics from the thread. https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=167696&highlight=Kong
More from the Barn in this thread. Seems I can see a cable in these pics from post #11. https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=136208&highlight=Kong I just did a “Kong” word search on the Barn. Came up with 8 pages. Just working backwards and on page 5, so lots more to go, but I gotta get going doing stuff. lol!
You could also machine just cap & mounting plate / flange in way with use of band clamp or other so you could just turn cap only , & add torsion bearing l Slid /roll easy . Just curious are you looking for just around 10 deg's + or - ?
Top 2 are Kong, bottom Meyer. You can see the attachment point for the Bowden cable on the body. View attachment 6598305
Not the same but years ago Gus in the Model Garage (in Popular Science?) series jury rigged a metal rod from the distributor to inside the car to adjust the timing on an old Cadillac to allow the owner to retard the ignition to allow the old worn our engine to start. Or something like that. But then this was over 60 years ago so the memory is a bit fuzzy.
I wonder if you took the shaft from a helmet distributor, shorten the length that the rotor rides on, then use that in a crab body. With the extended male end with the cam tang, it should provide enough extra length to allow you to make a plate do go around and attach to the point plate and to allow you to adjust it. I'm just going off memory and, of course, you would need to measure everything to see if this idea would actually work. You would have to machine a new rotor mount at the end of the shaft.
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