Rebuilding a 58 type Y block ford dist disassembled everything lubed every thing fitted an accel unit. Go to drop it in , hmmm won’t turn freely. Disassembly again , seems one of the advance springs is loose and pops off . I never dug that deep in it before. ? One spring has lost its zinc ( the one that falls off , the heavy spring ) the other light spring is still zinc. Can we get new springs?
The Ford Parts Catalogs describe the advance springs by physical dimensions. No spring tensions are given. By my book, you should have a primary spring that is 0.85 long, 0.28” OD with 11 1/2 coils (B8A-12192-A) and a secondary spring that is 1” long, 0.28” OD with 9 coils (B7A-12191-A). Those two springs appear to be used across all ‘58 & up Y-block distributor replacement applications. My parts books only go to 1964, so I can’t really help matching those springs to something more modern.
That looks about right. But we need a modern replacement. Thanks will be scouring eBay now we have the numbers.
I have bent the tabs out to take up the slack many moons ago, always seemed to work but maybe not what you wanted to hear. JW
@Rocket Scientist Chris , what is the little clip called that is inside the main shaft under the rotor. No we haven’t lost it yet, but there is always the possibility. Ain’t easy to get to either.
It’s the “Distributor Cam Retainer” - B7A-12177-A. It’s used in Y-block, Windsor, FE and MEL engines. So, if you do loose it, it should be easily replaced.
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