Technical ***December 2023 Banger Meet Thread - Santa I can explain***

Kevin : it looks like the pivot hole in the weight that's "riding up" might be "wallowed out", allowing it to ride over the advance cam. Possibly weld or "sleeve"(?) & redrill the hole on both weights (with a tighter tolerance), & square the contact edges of both the weights & the advance cam?

 

Just found that the center shaft flange is .030” lower on the side that is slipping the weight. Seems a little on the delicate side if .030” is going to make or break the design. The flyweights are a smidge sloppy on the pivots… but no worse than any other I’ve seen

 

Is there not another rub block/surface over the top of the flyweight?
But yes, you have found a QC issue.

John

 

The rotor screws down over the top and becomes the upper contact surface, and there is a plastic button on the lower plate. Apparently, still not enough to keep the flyweights under control…

 

Is there room to put a retaining ring on the shaft to hold the flyweights down? Or maybe just bend the plate up by .030"?

 

Been watching these videos on my lunch break this week. This guy put a stock Model T on the dyno. Then replaced it with a hopped up motor and dynoed it again. Pretty cool.

 

The B motor in my A has a Police head and an A distributor.

Been reading up on B distributors and it seems a good one is hard to find, especially over here.

So my question is, do I keep the simple but reliable A distributor, keep my finger on the lever while listening hard for knocking, or try and find a good B one for it's supposedly improved drivability?

Or are there another options?

I've only done a few easy pottering miles yet, so any thoughts on this would be appreciated before I hit the highway at proper speeds.

Edit:
It has a 1932 timing cover with the hole at the top of the boss, which I don't think should work with an A distributor.
I haven't checked how the timing has been set yet but it seems to run ok, and doesn't kick back when starting.

 

Let’s just say that Pertronix tech support was less than helpful…

I bent the inner flange up the .030” to match the other side, and moved a .020” thrust washer from the base to between the upper and lower centrifugal plates. The flyweights now seat against the full width of the inner flange and I feel will run reliably

 

Sorry, 36 HP at the rear wheels !!!............. sumptin not quite right there---- in my opinion!

 

Agreed! He must have done some pretty serious work on that stock NH carb!

Curious if the HP number was calculated to figure the HP at the flywheel. He may have used a large friction loss value…?

 

I can't remember which, but it is possible to fit an Anglia or prefect distributor to an a engine, might be a bit more readily available in the UK, I've got an fsi electronic distributor in my town sedan with a hopped up banger, and my mum's sport coupe has an fsi in the hopped up burtz, pretty happy with both of them, the only problem we've had with either was blowing up the coil in my mums sport coupe when the ignition was accidentally left on for over half an hour without the engine running while doing some troubleshooting with the wiring, so user error is the only problem we've ever had with them

 

I have been around a few different disty's and I have just migrated back to points only on my personal vehicles.
Don't get me wrong, I use EFI and ElectroMotive TEC on the race cars where applicable. Yes, my current coop project is EFI for drive-ability with Hilborn injector throttle bodies.
So, it is getting harder to find "A/B" specific units on the market but have adapted VW, MG, and various forklift units on A/B motors. All of them will require some machine work to fit, it is not too hard to do and while at it set the advance curve to suit. Mallory parts are still available for the aluminum body units, the cast iron "YA" not so much.
That said, whatever you use, make sure it is not worn out and functions properly especially the advance mechanism.

HNY, J

 

Just watched this video again but looked a bit closer at the Dyno results



41 lb/ft of torque seems a little bit low… but 4639 rpm seems a LOT high! The ol girl didn’t appear to be turnin near 120 mph on that pull If the 41 lb/ft is accurate, and let’s say the rpm got doubled (still a bit high for a basically stock T, would work out to bout 60 mph), the HP is then halved to 18.25. Much more believable. Especially considering he says that he made it up to 35mph on the way over to the dyno shop

HP = Torque x RPM / 5250

 

Its gotta be the dual exhaust manifold I tell ya!!
Nice catch!!

 

Or he was tipping the can pretty good!!

 

January 2024 meet is open

 

Hey, Kevin;
On the aftermarket vw distributor, is it for an aircooledvw? & if so, does it have the 3* retard built into #3, or have you checked? Or did you or Mallory use a different cam? Fwiw, vw did that to help keep the #3 cyl run cooler, as it was under/behind the oil-cooler, so of course it then got hotter air than the rest. For an acvw odd-combo I'm slowly putting together which won't have an oil-cooler in the fan shroud, I don't want/need the retarded spark. So's I'll either go to a computer-controlled ign & then also efi, or use carbs & a modified Pinto dist. Which is very similar in size/dimensions to an acvw. Haven't got far enough along to see if the cams can be swapped sorta-easy-like.
Just curious...
Marcus...

 

This is one of the Pertronix billet distributors for the air cooled VW’s, equipped with the Flame Thrower III ignition module. I’m told this is all Vega internals, rotor, and cap. I’m out futzin with the car today and just checked to see if any of the cylinders spark late… all 4 fire with no noticeable degree difference (my crank pulley is marked all the way around)

 

OK, thanks. Just curious. Have to check on a couple of acvw sites, to see how they deal w/this, if at all.
Different internals don't surprise me. Wonder if it was a screwup on Pertronix' end, laziness, or intentional. IDK.
Marcus...

 

This dizzy came to me with an alternative centrifugal spring combination, scratches on the center shaft, and the rev limiter adjustment screw turned all the way in one direction. My suspicion is that someone returned this distributor after incompetently futzin with it, and these “adjustments” went unnoticed when it was repackaged. I believe it possible that the center shaft was dropped during the futzin, causing my quality complaint. I’m not so sure that it was a production flaw… but I did purchase it “new” directly from Pertronix, and so expected their tech support to be at least remedially helpful… but who am I to make such assumptions…

 

Yea, funny like that, hmmm ??? . You actually might be lead, somehow, into thinking that maybe, just maybe, it's barely possible that some help from the mfgr &/or vendor would be in order... Different World n Time it is...
Marcus...