Hello all, I need a bit of advice...ok i'll be honest a lot of advice. I am building a 51 flathead V8 motor for my project, and things tend to change as the project go's on. Like the aluminum timing cover that I got and spent hours polishing and looks great on the motor...only to find out that the stock distributor wont work with it. so now I bought the right aluminum distributor...and just to make things harder I managed to get a NOS dual point plate to put in it. Sooo...just like everything else I now have another problem, How do I remove the old plate? I do not want to damage anything and need some advice on how to change it over. (I searched and cant find any information about what I need to do) Thanks [/IMG]
IMHO...not a useful choice of hardware. Single points are not really a handicap with a modern coil and an engine that will be running WAY below 6,000 R's. This distributor has good part-throttle characteristics if eveything is perfect, full throttle advance is a bit weak on a perfect stocker and disastrous if anything at all is wrong or if engine is modified. It was just plain a bad design by Holley, and should have been retired much earlier! A better distributor (Early Mallory, converted Chevy, MSD) will pep up a complete stocker and is alomost mandatory on a rod. Some early rodders reported that a new '49 Ford would pull a better 0--60 time at 3/4 throttle than wide open, due to this lovely device.
hey CRASH...the duel points give longer dwell, well like putting a magnito in, that's the good side. the bad side is maintaning the duel point GAP, and believe me that's no easy task. i ran mallory duel point dist. in 1964 so i know what i'am saying! just do whatever your big enough too...POP.
I agree with holeshot. Keeping the dual-points in proper tune to get any power addition is a pain in the ***. I had a Mallory in my 50 coupe and got tired of it. When the resistor up and dies, I put in one of the new MSD drop ins. No problems now. If you want to run the stock distributor, get a Petronix kit. Points may be "old school" but there is a reason you can't find them in newer cars that still had distributors.
The real issue here is the vacuum advance. With the multi-carb setup, the OEM vacuum advance is virtually useless on either the cast-iron or the aluminum distributor. The
Bruce, as usual has it right, and if he hadn't said it, I would have. Ford made a giant leap backward in '49 when they installed that distributor. With today's electronics, put in a converted Chev like the guy here on HAMB builds ( IIRC, GMC Bubba}, maybe a low end MSD box, and be done with it. When it comes to flatheads, I been there, got the T-shirt and wore the damn thing out about 50 years ago. And nobody, but NOBODY who knew anything about flatheads used that damn distributor. Dave
Thank you all for the very good advice, the thing is that I am sticking with the 6 volt system. so as far as I know points are what I will have to use and I have the parts to do the conversion. I don't have the money to buy all new parts. With a converted Chevy, MSD I would have to go back to the cast iron timing cover to fit it and I don't think it will work with 6 volt. I like the look of the generator on the motor and I don't have the extra money to get a generator converted to 12 volt, and all the electrical items I have are 6 volt. as far as the extra work to keep the points properly adjusted, that does not bother me that is why I am putting together a car rather than buying one. Sooo....does anyone have any thoughts on How I remove the old plate? I do not want to damage anything and need some advice on how to change it over. Thanks
Crash: You're missing a major point. Merely changing that distributor to dual points isn't going to solve anything. You still have no advance mechanism because that distributor has no mechanical advance, only vacuum advance (not manifold vacuum, but carb venturi vacuum) which won't work with multiple carbs. If you want dual points, you still need another distributor. On 6 volts positive ground, pertronix sells a unit for you to eliminate the points, but you still have to solve the advance problem by swapping the distributor. I'm on 6 volts positive ground. I put a new Mallory dual point, but I had to swap out the Mallory points because they stink. I swapped in some Eichlin points from NAPA and I'm good to go.
My memory is that Pertronix makes a 6V positive ground conversion for the stock distributor. You can hook the vacuum advance up to one of the venturi vacuum ports on your dual carbs and it will sort of work. A better answer would have been to stick with the stock single carb or to put in a 59A cam and run an earlier distributor that can use manifold vacuum.
Here's an exploded view of the distributor that may help. Lots of good info on Mac VanPelt's website at http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/flathead_partsdrawings_links.htm I agree with the suggestions to use one the earlier Mallory crab distributors. They are dual point, vacuum brake, centrifugal advance, plentiful and bullet-proof. If you can find a Harmon Collins dual coil, even better.
'49-51 manual *will call out what I cannot remember, which is whether cam will go through hole...cannot tell from pic, cannot remember from the last time I worked on one of these. If no go, drive out pin at bottom and remove gear. Put ger back SAME way, keep close track of springs and do not swappem. I see NO downside to keeping original single point setup. This is a speed part that is not gonna show any results. *go order one...it woll be a LOT more use to you than the conversion plate!
And the crab is only a good idea at rebuild time, as cam has to be changed. If running a motor as-is, get a Chevy conversion or an early mallory or M$D. Current Mallory may need quite a bit of work to be ready.
Also need to change the timing gear set with the switch to a crab distributor as the gears are cut at the opposite angle to put the cam thrust on the timing cover instead of the block.
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