Please help I.D. mystery distributor

About a year or two ago, I went out to look at some marine hemi stuff that I guy had put on ebay (which didn't sell).

Most of it was junk; but there were these Autolite distributors - I thought they were mags at first - that are encased, sealed, and set up for aircraft style shielded cables. They take a different drive shaft than my p*** car 331 (which I'm pretty glad I got).

One distributor is missing its tag; the other is marked with MFG's # IBH 4001AUT, and SERIAL # 3JO51365

Anybody know what year/application these are from?

I bought a factory M45 marine engine manual online, but it just shows p***enger car style distributors.

Looking inside, they use a cap and coil which look different than the p***enger car stuff, but the points and rotor look like they may (I haven't checked yet) be the same as the Autolite car distributors.

Let's see if I can figure out how to attach pics...












So, anybody know what year or model engine these would have been on?

-bill

 

I think you may want to try a military vehicle forum on this--lots of older MV's use those to prevent radio interference.

 

I think that the military used them on vehicles that could drive under water. I had a dodge powerwagon that was equipped with one similar had a plate on the hood side to run an exhaust stack to ford small rivers. makes sense that they would also be handy on some marine applications too!

 

Thanks for the tips, guys!

I tried different google (has anybody noticed that really spells 'go ogle'?) combinations of marine, hemi, chrysler, etc.

I never thought of 'military'.

-bill

 

What ever became of these units? I have two engines with the same distributors.

 

I realize that this is a four year old revitalized thread, but the drive looks like early Cadillac, and I know that many WW II tanks were powered by flathead Caddy engines.

 

I have to agree with Heathen, the drive looks Flathead Cadillac

 

Military Chrysler 318 V8 distributor, used in the M-119 APC's. This is a waterproof, self contained type distributor which the Military adopted in the 40's for all their rolling stock...4 cylinder on up. I'm surprised some of the other old Army Motor Pool Farts didn't recognize it. As for the drive, it was designed to be "Idiot Proof". The drive tangs were offset, and you couldn't install it 180 out...

 

I'm an "old motor pool fart" '66-'67 but our APC's had waterproof SBC in them.