I pulled and rebuilt my Loadomatic distributor. threw in new wires, autolite 46 plugs, flamethrower coil, new points(gapped at .017), condensor the works. I had a hard time getting the distributor lined up where I removed it. Car wouldnt even start. Two friends came over and we got TDC on Cylinder 1, lined it all up and the car started up and ran ok, idles around 800RPM. Well the vacuum diaphram was hitting the manifold so we could not time it. SO they removed the body and reconfigured the distributor so i have plenty of room to advance. car starts and runs at idle ok with advance dissconnected. When I give it load it stumbles and misses and just doesnt feel powerful enough like it used to. Plugs got fouled already. Now if I advance or retard timing it doesnt help and the car stumbles. I did take it for a spin but it feels like SHIT. Now if I connect my vacuum advance the car DIES as soon as I open the throttle and I cant even move it out of the garage. It chokes bad, POPS, spits fuel from the top of the carb and DIES. This only happens with the advance connected. Some guys mentioned I may be in the wrong gear or something? Any suggestions here? We already moved the damn thing 4 times I cant figure out whats happening here.
Need to get it running and check the dwell--Sounds like you distributor plate is geting cocked when you connect the vaccum-Something wrong with it and shouldnr be to hard to isolate.
There may be other opinions on the board, but I think your problem is the Load-a-matic distributor. Get a conventional distributor from a '57 or later motor. At least then you have something that works in a conventional manner and can be troubleshot.
Yeah I never had issues like this before this is the worst ignition problem in 17 years. I just checked gap and dwell. gap is .017 dwell i adjusted between 27 and 28 which is within spec in the shop manual. car idles fine, misses a little from the fouled plugs but once i put her in gear it stumbles and chokes, pops and dies. it always stays running. I am wondering maybe my friends installed the distributor wrong where its way too advanced or retarded and i cant get it within a spec to even drive. I just dont get why it does completely when i connect the vacuum advance. I rebuilt the loadomatic because it was cheap. I really wanted the tach drive unilite mallory but didnt have the scratch for one now.
dont have a timing light at the house. my friends brought one yesterday and it was a touch advanced from the light indications. it idles fine but that does me no good. if i advance more it just DIES, doesnt even PING. i may make a quick video to put on utube. something is telling me i want my old worn distributor back because i got this one on exchange from parts supplier.
Ok , pretty simple so far. The car ran well with the old distributor and terrible with the new one. Well my vote is for a defective rebuilt distributor .... Most of the parts store rebuilds are terrible at best. Lets take it back and i can send ya later unit ( with mechanical advance etc tested and ready to drop in) Hamber pricing of $135.....
Apologies to the board for the link post, (it a lazy day here) did you remove the the metal tube? (I have used 1/16" Bundyflex) and run 3/32" vacuum line? http://m571.com/yblock/loadomatic.htm
My fingers are pointing towards the rebuilt distributor. I mean it looks and moves amazingly sweet but I cant drive the damn car. So that doesnt say much. My old working unit is in the hands of UPS and wont be delivered until WED so i have hope in getitng it back if I need to. Old unit had play in the break plates causing the timing to bounch when i punched the throttle but other than that it ran flawlessly for 2000 miles. Anyone interested in seeing a live Video? Just say the magic word and Ill fire it up and show you guys.
Sorry to partially HiJack this thread but Bubba, am I reading that you can modify the early dist with vac only to be like a 57 and later? And if so, what a bout a proper vac source with the original carb for the Load a Matic?
The lobes on the distributor are out of phase with the rotor. The rebuilder was not familiar enough with these distributors to know that he/she needed to mark the cam before removing it. Later distributors have a key way, but the loadamatic does not. Under this condition it is possible to time the car without any advance, but as soon as you hook it up the ignition advances and tries to fire the next cylinder in the firing order. To fix it you will have to press the cam off the shaft and reposition it. To ascertain the correct position you will need to study a known good distributor, and note the relationship between the flat of the shaft where the rotor fits and the high point of one of the cam lobes. If you don't have another loadamatic to study I can take a look at one tomorrow, and send you the information tomorrow evening.
Dominick this makes alot of sense and you seem to know of the issues I have. Yes PM the details Monday. I dont have another loadomatic on hand or even know what to do but I hope i can correct this myself with some photo help from you guys. I knew this cant be so complicated to install a distributor now things are getting clearer.
Dominick you hit the nail dead on this one man thanks!. I am clever enough to always snap photos as i work on things because my memory sucks. here are two photos, one of the old Loadomatic and the rebuilt one. On the old, running one the flat part where the rotor locks into is aligned with the high spot on the cam. on the new rebuilt the dummy decided to line up the flat part of the shaft to the flat part on the cam throwing this out of whack completly. I just hope i can get this done local without breaking anything.
Great reply Dominick Hide. Was gonna suggest same thing. Have seen this on the Sun 404 Distributor Machine I have. Cut some holes in the distributor Cap with a hole saw between each terminal. You can see the rotor phase with atiming light. The Rotor phase can get so far out it will fire the next plug like you said. Let us know how you make out.
Don, I wouldnt modify, i have some 57 and later cores and would just build up one of those. More than likely i would use the orginal vac source.
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