ta duh !!!!!!!! The distributor of the week is the "Ford 200 six cylinder", beats me but this is one of three units ( two from the hamb) thta i have done this week. Lets look at this jewel ! Tom ( 6inarrow) had a new engine built for the kds car and the engine builder didnt like the avance rate of the distributor and Tom shipped it out for a look see. After running it in the tester the problem is seen right away. Full advance at 1600 rpm , man thats really early for any engine really!!!!! Pull it apart and it has the typical engine vapor, crud build up inside and the advance is pretty gummed up, shown in picture. Off to the 185 degree Cuda (sauna) for a clean up !! Back from the cleanup , relube and reassemble advance unit. Note : These are really nice Ford units as the advance is totally adjustable by bending the spring mounts out or inward to change tension and can be done when totally assembled. Note there is one heavy spring (purple) and one light spring ( yellow) . Thats light for low speed and heavy for high speed. The advance (vacuum) plate needed some clean and lube while it was out a well, note the three nylon buttons this plate rides on.. Some new NAPA Echlin heavy duty contacts and a condensor test and lets spin er again. Now we have it , a little adjustment with the springs and we have the advance curve progressive from idle to 3000 rpm..... Tom will let us know how she runs.........
I better pay attention to this, I have a feeling I may get the honor of putting in one of those HAMBer units soon. You do nice work Bubba.
STOP making it look so easy! You left out the step where I break off a screw flush in the plate and strip out a couple of others. Then lose a spring and swear at it.......THEN I take it to BUBBA'S. Thanks Jim for the nice tech articles.
Thanks again Bubs for a great write up. I love the old Ford points distribs but never thought that they get gummed up and the advance goes wonky. moe .
GMC BUBBA you need a tech line!!! I always fall short when it comes to distributers, Ive been fighting an olds for three days, I cant get the dwell to hold still and the timing is all over the place! Could be because it makes the one in the first picture look brand new!!! Good work man!
Question Bubba, I've got a points dist from a 302 ford mercruiser motor. I am wanting to run this in my 5.0 roller cam motor. I've heard these are reverse rotation distributors. Will this work with a gear change? Can you put on a steel gear for me?
May or may not be that easy. Reverse rotation requires a proper phase of the distributor cam to cap and rotor and proper swing of the advance weights. Some ( like the mallorys) have adjustments to fix this issue , however it requires a machine......
Another quick question: You told me in an earlier e-mail that in my Megasquirted 250 six that I'm better off without vacuum advance. Just wondering why that is? Also, if I send in my Unilite to have you re-do it, can you convert it to something more durable? I have clearance issues and can't go real tall. I'm looking for mileage and driveabilty.
Thanks Jim! We should have the kids car together by Friday. Our 17 year old hauled home a 66 mustang last year. Car looked great, he got a fair buy on it and even though I am a chevy 6 guy, I thought it was great to have a young man working on an old car. What we got was a mustang with a bad engine and trans. So, we did the old 1-2 on it: as long as the thing was apart, I thought he would like it with a cam, balanced, 250 head worked for a 2bbl, header - all the good stuff. Ran it on the stand and the ignition was all fouled up. Car idled great, started right up but it got hot on the exhaust and the dist was as described by Bubba So GMC Bubba hisself said get it to him ASAP and he would work it over. I'll update when its all together next week..... Thanks again Jim
Typically injected units have electronic advance based on inputs from the sensors , ( ie tps, ect,act, map and rpm) and a vacuum would be kinda hard to program. Now if you are using another distributor with mechanical ( and no electronic) then i guess vac would be ok??? Converting the unit lite isnt a problem .
Good to know, thanks. I like the low profile of the Unilite, and it runs well, but always worried about it dying someday. The Megasquirt doesn't control any timing on mine, just uses it to sync injector pulses. Yeah, I can see where advance on the dizzy will advance the injection as well. My injectors batch-fire, like a throttle body setup, so maybe that wouldn't matter? I'd just like it a little smoother, better economy.
Cool Jim! I have to say here and now, that Jim helped me immensly a couple of months agao with setting up the crab cap distributor for endlessearths '29 roadster. Put the adaptor on, hooked it up, perfect!!! Thank you sir! Now a specific question on this weeks deal. Is this distributor a load-O-matic Falcon unit, or is it the later '68 - '74 type that I have heard of?
ooohhh, Distributors and carburetors....what evil lurks within....HAHAAAA Nobody else would mess with them...I have been doing them since I was 13.... Had a distributor machine for over 20 years and had to sell it due to a "restricted" move. (kick butt) THEN I had a chance to buy it (same one) again later but did not have the money.......(kick butt again)
Well, it runs. And it runs great. As well as, or better if I do say so, than my 235. DAMN, I just said it. Now I have to get to work on that. I cant have a junior in high school have more fun on the street than dad.... Jim, I think the dist fixed the heat problem too. On the engine stand the headers were over 400*. It was 93 here today (I think) and very humid. We got it all together and ran it this afternoon and it was noticeably cooler. I put the infra red on it and the highest header reading I got was 270*, and the radiator never got above 195*. it was perfect. So the thing must have been cursed with the stock dizzy. THANKS GMC Bubba!!! You rock. Did you get the garage t-shirts??
Tom, Glad to hear it, i cant believe how many times the "heat" issue comes up after a distributor set up. I was a fleet ( Town of Speedway) service mechanic for a few years and the first thing checked on a piece of industrial equipment overheating was spark and spark advance etc. The flathead Fords are the worse at this , it has got to be on the money..... enjoy ! Thanks for the shirts......
Not the vacuum only "load a matic" this one has the full centrifical advance with the vacuum advance as well. I have a couple cores if ya need one built....
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