Hot Rods Anyone specialize in rebuilding Ford distributors?

I'm looking for someone I can give referrals to who can hard plate or replace worn distributor shafts common to Fords. Y-block and older, as well as rebuild and recurve for modern fuels.
Anyone left?
Rumor has it even Ignition Engineering retired recently and we lost Bubba's around Xmas.

 

There must be someone who rebuilds hipo Mustang distributors out there. That’s where I would start.

 

There used to be...
But that's post - Y-block.

 

My search for a rebuilder started a couple years ago, most places I found online were in the USA, I’m in Canada and not wanting to deal with exchange and all the other **** I kept looking for a local or Canadian source. I found Autoline in Manitoba, contacted them and they affirmed they could do it but I would have to send a rebuildable unit as they have no cores, and I would have to do it through a business they deal with, ok, took it to the local parts place and off it went, back in a week and a half, looks great all clean and shrink wrapped in a box, and not terribly expensive either, about 71 dollars which concerned me a bit as that amount doesn’t go far nowadays, popped the cap off, which actually fit properly, not like the sloppy generic **** available at the parts store, same with the rotor, the points and condenser however were just like everything available now. This is where things really got disappointing , the unit I sent had enough shaft wobble to open the points on the flat of the cam and it still did! Mad as a wet cat, I dis***embled things to see what they did do, the breaker plates were cleaned and new nubbins, after removing the ******* clip ( I call it that because it’s a ****in ******* to remove) removed the advance mechanism from the shaft, the plate the weight pins slide in had been replaced but not properly staked, the weights had not been replaced and were badly worn on all the pins, springs were replaced and the thrust shim, new drive gear and roll pins.
The shaft was still as it was and the bushing obviously was not replaced.

I was still on the road, as I had another distributor, worn but not as badly. So now I’m looking for parts, in particular weights and a bushing , I’m pissed and going to fix it myself, nothing much I can do about the wear on the shaft but a new bushing should put me back into useable condition.

So back to the parts store after having spent hours and hours online trying to find distributor parts (the parts I’m after) no matter how you word it, all that comes up is points/condenser/ cap and rotors. I must say at this point the internet has become practically useless for finding obscure stuff.

Anywho, I catch up with the owner of the parts store because I know he has books and is not afraid to use em, but he can’t source what I’m after. I explained to him why I’m after these parts and he said just bring it back, even though it’s been 6 months, I’ve not used it and it was not “fixed” to a usable standard. He sent it back with strongly worded letter , two weeks later it’s back, no cost apart from shipping. Shaft has very minimal runout, I don’t know for sure what was done as I’m not inclined to mess with the ******* clip, maybe the bushing been changed or the shafts been knurled, highly doubt the shaft was repaired.
While I find myself conflicted about the whole process and unable to give a whole hearted endor*****t of this company, I would say they are an option.

As an afterword, I did find that the later bigger ford trucks use a very similar distributor to the 57-64 y block dist. but just like Ford, just because it looks the same doesn’t mean it is, the weights will work, they’re the same apart from the pins that slide in the advance plate, you must grind them down about an eighth so as not to contact the rivet bases on the breaker plate. I have not looked into whether these are available new or not, just a little something I found while shopping in the junkyard, also found the points work as well and are more robustly built.

 

Lou Sumas did my Y block dist. and it seems to function quite well. Did a really nice job on rebuilding the current one and my spare. PM is you want his number.

Mike

 

Wanderlust, that's the same thing I'm seeing although I had seen some of Autoline's work in the past and it was much better than that. I guess you're stuck with whichever location you send it to as they have many subcontractors. If you mic the shaft, you'll likely find .003-.006" missing where it rides on the upper bushing and this is my first concern. No one makes shafts, weights, breaker plates, etc... that are compatible with the original distributors, although some of the later reproduction distributors/parts from China are "close enough" to be able to make them work.

There used to be a gentleman in FL who worked for Ford prior to his retirement and he had a stash of OEM parts. There was also a Mustang spe******t with a similar stash. My specialties are Delco, Auto-lite, Prestolite, Bosch and Lucas so I simply never collected the necessary Ford parts.

Does Lou Sumas have a business I can refer folks to? I get a few calls a week and I'd like to steer them in a clear direction if possible.