Technical Allen Syncrograph - Model E-316HD Resto

The wires look fine to me also.

 

Cleaned things up. Cleaned all the contacts with 600 grit paper. Had some cam lobe contacts in better shape, so used them. Was watching this vid, and then noticed I was missing the vacuum brake plate. Thought I lost it somehow, but looking back at the pic of all the parts, it doesn’t seem to be there. Seems you can run the distributor without the vacuum brake, so will try.










Next will be adjusting the point gap.

 

Found the plate. It was in the orig box of parts. Cleaned up the surface contacts and nuts from corrosion for the condenser. Watching the vid, I now realize I got the spring contacts for the cam portion in the incorrect order, so will have to disassemble again and fix. This will have to wait for tomorrow. Still need to eat supper.

 

Distributor is back together properly (I think). lol! Added some dielectric grease I had to the cam lobes. Re-positioned the spring contacts properly (copper spring goes underneath the copper contact on the base plate). Set gap at 0.014”. Used the ruler trick to set initial advance. Looks pretty much centred on the timing plate. Tried measure the capacitance of the condenser. It kept rising until OL. Got a good Fluke meter, but never measured the capacitance of anything since my university days. lol! Measured the voltage after that, and it was dropping, so figure it must be doing something. Haha! Now to clean up the coil, make a wire to run between the coil and distributor, and then steal a plug wire from my 97 Lexus. Not sure if the boots will fit though.



Also, got a new helper. My kiddo’s Corgi. Haha!

 

Got the two clamps centred on the main drive. Noticed that the dual direction bolt was biased (in terms of length) towards one side. So started threaded the clamp on that side a few turns before starting the other clamp. It worked! Now spins the Ford adapter spindle without any wobble. Stared flipping the toggle switch from
“Left” to “Right”. Then noticed it was only spinning in one direction whether it was in the “Left” or “Right” position. Double D’oh!
I guess I shouldn’t be doing it while the drive motor is still spinning! Seems to be working properly again. Thank God!
Wanting to check things out, I pulled on the faux drawer, and it popped out! Now had a great view of the inner workings of the drive motor and mechanism. I can see the drive motor has a cone shaped drive wheel that contacts the wheel the drives the main shaft. By turning the speed knob, it moves the drive motor axially towards and away from the main driveshaft wheel. Can’t tell if the drive wheel on the main shaft is cone shaped.
Also noticed what looks like lubrication “pots” or “wells”. I guess it’s time to read the manual. Damn!

 

Re:capacitance.
Seems like you might be using the ohms scale and having the meter charge the cap? It’s an indication.
But Amazon can have a capacitance meter to you quickly for 30$ or so, but if you know what size cap it is, may as well save some $$ and just replace it.
Ie a 250uF cap is about 10-12$.

 

Yep. The idiot I am, I thought the symbol on the meter was showing capacitance. lol! My near sightedness has gotten way better, but now seems I’m losing my far sightedness.

 

Tested the coil. Got the following results:

1. between (BAT) and (DIST) terminals - 0.9 ohms
2. Between the high voltage coil terminal and (BAT) terminal - 9.19 K ohms
3. Between the high voltage coil terminal and (DIST) terminal - 9.19 K ohms

 

Now trying to figure out how to wire all this mess up. Pulled my ballast resistor from the speedster figuring I’ll need that. Then started wondering where do I get my positive voltage from?

looks like the positive lead splits off the lead for the “work light”. I replaced that wire, but had no clue the wire was teed with an alligator clip. Oh vey!

 

The washed out pics in the photocopied manual that I purchased on eBay are not much help.

 

Finished up adding the 6 VDC lead to the work light plug. Checked the other (third) terminal (top one in pic) prong on the machine and there was no power to it, so weird they used a three-prong plug. I’m guessing the lead with the alligator clip coming from the arm is to ground the distributor. Not sure where the work light is supposed to be clamped.

 

Found this link to this sales brouchute. Mentions 4 oilite bearingswith reservoirs with zerk fittings. Will need to find those fittings and see what grease is used.

https://archive.org/details/AllenSynchrographModelE316HD

 

not going to matter-whatever multi you have in the grease gun!

 

Haha! Likely true!

So, as mentioned, the manual mentions Zerk fittings. Went ahead and loosened the grease “caps” on four of the five grease fittings. The two for the electric motor look fine. There are three for the “driveshaft”. Two at the bottom (one of which I couldn’t get my fingers on to remove), and one at the top. The grease in those looks less than desirable compared to that for the motor. Manual says nothing really about greasing things up other than this cautionary note.




View attachment 6509620

 

Always wondered what this hole was for, and if anything was missing that went there. Looking at pics of an Allen machine for sale on eBay (CAN$2,900!!!), it seems it’s just a place to store the knurled knob with the Allen key which is used to loosen the support arm. Mine has a link for the chain, and there are a couple of chains in the drawer, but not sure where it is supposed to attach to. The one on eBay shows it being attached to the rear /bass of the adjustable tower. Mine doesn’t seem to have any attachment point there for a chain. I know this is funky dink stuff, but it pisses me off that finding any info is so difficult.



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Just had a brain fart. I think the one chain with the solid cylindrical shaped piece of metal was attached to the knurled knob and was just a weight that pulled down the knob into that opening. Seems someone at some point tried to repair the broken link with some wire.

 

Threw the brass screw for the dwell knob in my cordless Makita drill, and went at it with the file to take down the head dia. Somehow, ended up oblong. lol! Also, took a bit off the length. Good enough for now! Knob back in place after God only knows how many years.

 

Managed to twist off the “rivet” that captured the broken link to the knurled knob. Removed a link from the spare chain and soldered it to the link. Attached the rivet using blue thread locker back to the knob with the new link. Haha! Added a grommet to the cabinet where the hole was and another on the arm where the wire for the alligator clip exited. Super minor stuff, but I couldn’t let it rest.

 

It does show capacitance, you just have to change the meter from Ohms to capacatince. I believe the yellow button does that.

 

Forgot to post on the pic of the one for sale on eBay. I wonder how many models/permutations Allen had of these things? That price is crazy for something that is not 100% functional. I think I paid USD$250 for mine in 2020.

 

From your description of the drive motor and speed control, it sounds very similar to the Sun distributor machines. If that's the case there's probably a thick rubber ring somewhere in the contact area between the drive and driven wheels. On the Sun machines it was always advised or, in fact required, to turn the speed control completely down when the unit was not in use. (The guys who made their living using these machines would put a boot in your ass if you failed to do this! ) Failing to do so would eventually cause a flat spot on the rubber ring which would cause a thumping or knocking noise when the machine was in use.

 

Thanks! Good to know! Will do.

 

Well, I’ve already said I’m an idiot, and clearly know nothing about how this machine functions, or how to test a points distributor. Attached the new 6 VDC positive lead with the alligator clip to the condenser attached to the distributor body, and noticed the main lights as well as the instrument lights dimmed immediately. Noticed a few sparks at the alligator clip when I touched it to the main post on the dist body. The clip also got very hot, so knew then it was a direct short. Was hoping I didn’t damage anything.
Continued futzing with it. Cleaned off the grease on the main electrical contact rings of the driveshaft (they were pretty greasy). Then just put the one alligator clip exiting the arm onto the distributor body. Played with the middle knob on the instrument panel and set it to “CAM SYN”. Then turned on the machine. Well, holy hell! Noticed the strobe lights lit up, and the tach was working! I’m beyond amazed at how this thing still seems to function 100%. I just wish I knew how the hell to use it!

 

Also, never turn the speed control if the motor is not running. This drags the rubber wheel across the stationary drive plate also causing a flat spot.

 

So learning as I go and watching a few YT vids. Seems the following is true compared to what I first thought:

1. No ballast resistor is required to test the distributor even if there is one in the vehicle.
2. No distributor coil is required to test the distributor as there is one already located under the drive/degree wheel.
3. Vacuum brake piston should be removed for initial testing/setup of Ford distributors which have them.
4. The “distributor lead” on the Allen machine is the lead exiting the mounting arm. Seems the Sun machines have both a distributor lead and negative lead which is clamped to the arm to complete the circuit.
5. The distributor lead is clamped to the “points” meaning the points base plate, or in the case of this Ford crab style distributor, to the main stud the condenser centre terminal is attached to.

This is probably all self-evident to those who know already about this kind of stuff, but for a novice like myself, very important info that is not easily gleamed from stuff I’ve watched or read.
Also, was wondering what the shiny protrusion was on the Ford adapter, and watching a YT with someone who I think was “Bubba”, I learned it was the vacuum port. Haha! May he RIP.

So, some pics of how it’s all connected at the moment. Still not sure where/how to mount the work light. Attached it to one of the cam wheels on the Ford adapter, but the weight of it caused the cam to loosen while it was running.





The electrical contacts on the main shaft after cleaning.