Technical challenge! can you spot the problem.

it is under the plate, you can see it in this photo

could be...?

hopefully

 

I have all the parts cleaned and ready to assemble. bushings in the housing had no play so I left it together, but cleaned it real good.

 

all back together. new brass nuts and washers, lube on the cam, fresh grease in the grease cup, pivot for advanced cleaned and lubed, wire routed away from housing [no movement on this distributor but a good habit], trimmed the fork on the condenser wire [it was capable of hitting ground] and adjusted points.

 

Tried to see if I could measure the difference in the spring of the points, for example. simply.
I could fold the spring of the old set easily between my pinky and ring finger, which if you try to grip something that way, doesn't have a lot of strength. I couldn't fold the spring of the new points without exerting a lot of force with my thumb and fore finger.

 

So is the spring tension too much or are you keeping's dangling...? Gap not correct?

 

new points will be perfect , the old points were the problem, in combination with a bunch of small things. will get it running tomorrow. i also had to rebuild the starter for the truck.

I agree that the old set was missing a spring and they were the big problem.
thank you.
Shitty parts and bad maintenance give point distributors a bad reputation. In another scenario a Petronics would have been put in and another points basher would be born.

 

final update:
dropped distributor back in, set timing and took it for a test drive. truck pulled perfect and revved as high as I dared.
55 MPH no problem
Problem was a weak/missing spring on the points. this was allowing the points to "float" at high revs.
There is a video on my Inst gram post showing the truck pull.

 

Aftermarket stuff is junk (new stuff). I just bought a few NOS GM and some NORS Niehoff points (and condensers), fit perfect. Both for a V8 and 6, got to test out my Milton dwell checker.


Those look like some crappy stamped points, but the blue wire on the condenser tells me it might be Standard Ignition parts.

Found them, new Standard Ignition points without the spring.

DR1823

 

thanks for posting a picture of the "missing" spring ,for guys that may not have known what we were talking about.