Technical Is my Mallory Unilite broken?

I am trying to hook up the tach cable to my Mallory Unilite distributor. I can't get it to engage with the cable. It looks like the drive in the distributor is cracked and spread out. If you have one to compare, look at my picture and see if it looks broken to you. Or am I missing something that goes into the hole? This is on a 312 Y block in my 56 T-Bird.

 

Looks like it's made for a cable with a tang not the square cable end.

 

Unscrew the adapter and take the gear out and see what it looks like. But it looks broken to me.

 

You should just be able to take out the driven gear & check fitment to your cable, (7/8 - 15/16?
If split there are methods to fix the split, & if a tag drive it canbe accomplished with thought

 

I’ve never taken the cap off of my Chevy tach drive, but that looks round, more like a sleeve for the non-business part of the cable to ride on.
As said before, take it off and look it over.

 

Where do I find the tang drive adapter?

 

$33, wow that's almost as much as I paid for the cable.

 

Can you not buy the proper cable?

 

@Moriarity is the man!

 

I already spent $40 on what was supposed to be the correct cable for a Unilite in a 56 T-Bird. So I don't know if I can.

 

Mopars use a tang cable ,,,,and I guess Ford does as well .
They work great !

Tommy

 

I guess it depends on how bad you want to use it. Lippy

 

So true.

 

It might be as simple as using one of these speedo cable adapter keys or tips. Looks to be definitely cheaper to get one from GM if still available. We used to stock them years ago when when I worked a GM parts counter but I don't remember what the application was.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3313794191...1291&msclkid=9114e7476cf518a009bb8318646a2c71

https://www.gmpartsgiant.com/parts/gm-key-88961013.html

 

Can not tell by pic, if the square cable will fit is side of driven end
(removed from driven housing),
you could grease cable end , mix up some JB rap tape around gear stem fill up with JB, stick yr greased end in after it starts to harden , pull cable out , let it set/ harden fully, sand down excess !!
A thought???