Vickey,

         Over the winter, see if you can find someone locally with an old distributor machine.

That way you can have the curve modified. It is very normal for the heavy spring to be loose or inactive when the weights are closed. Don't worry about it.  

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

frank

it seems i got one out of the box i cant fault this dizzy i only checked the advance with the light but it advanced smoothly as the revs came up engine runs really smooth when driving seems to have more power down low it was raining tonight when i left work drove out the gate got to the corner tookof like i normally would & sat still wheels spun i had to back of never done that before i have to re learn how to drive it now. haha

moz. geelong victoria australia.

graduate 1980, bus, truck, car, hot rod, boat, submarine, hovercraft, hydrafoil, firetruck, mobile home, jet, helicopter, cruise ship, motorcycle, bicycle, santa's sleigh, clock, alloy bullbar, alloy fuel tank, lens, dr who's tardis, matter - anti matter warp drive buffer & y-block lover

The 13L side is at the stop. While opening up the advance the 18L side spring doesn't start to open up till it's just about at the end of the travel. Gary

       

Gary, 55 Vicky, St. Germain, Wisconsin

 

Hopefully - the mechanical advance travel stop is engaged in the "13L" side of the flyweight carrier? I think that's where you want it - limits the distributor mechanical advance to 13° - 26° at the crank. When used with the popular 10° to 12° initial setting (vacuum disconnected and plugged) it will net 36° to 38° total advance. Which is just about right.

The centifugal advance rate (rpm at which it's all in) is set by the combination of the two flyweight springs - usually one stiff - one light in a factory set-up. You would like all of the advance in somewhere just above 2500 crankshaft rev's. That will probably mean changing the stiff spring for a lighter one. Without a distributor machine to save some effort this usually means a few trials with varying rates of springs. Mr Gasket P/N 925D (?) is a set of Ford distributor springs that is usually easy to find.

 
 Steve Metzger       Tucson, Arizona

I'm also a little suspect of my distributor, it's rebuilt, 3 years old, B7AE12127. After going thru John Mummerts info it looks as though the 59 vac arm is on it as it is bent. The weight assembly has 13L with a G2 weight by it, the other one is 18L with a G3 by it. The spring on the 18L end is very loose while the other one is tight. Not sure if any of this makes sense, hope someone can visualize what I've been babbling about. This is an Autolite unit, REMFG....LA C2 IS ON THE SIDE. The car is a 55 Victoria, 272. Do the innards sound normal?, Thanx, Gary

       

Gary, 55 Vicky, St. Germain, Wisconsin

 

The one I got from AutoZone appeared to be pretty decent. I'm no fan of AZ either but this one had a new shaft and cam. Moz said it looked pretty decent on the Dwell meter, but didn't mention checking the advance with a light or a distributor machine. Which means the old sloppy weights might have been used, or not. It was half the cost of the NAPA unit.

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

Interesting subject, as I'm somewhat in the same boat after purchasing a supposedly rebuilt distributor from NAPA (Canada) a while back. I've never been able to get a Dwell reading to book spec. I'm told the distributor cam is probably worn.

Paul

Her is a company that rebuilds distributors.



http://www.philbingroup.com/

54 Victoria 312;  48 Ford Conv 302, 56 Bird 312
Forever Ford
Midland Park, NJ

Dan, here is a thread that chronicles some of my recent experiences:  http://www.y-blocksforever.com/forums/Topic15033-3-1.aspx , and a lot of excellent member input.

After getting the one dist. back to shape in fine order with new weights and a new points cam with new slots for the weights, trying to find the parts to do a second one has been unsuccessful.  The weights appear not to be available anywhere.  The post below from POP may give a lead in the phone number provided, but I havent followed that up.  Crane, Summit, and NAPA do not have them available.  Maybe you will get lucky and have yours be reusable. 

AZ28 has good instructions and diagrams for conversion of the Y to a Duraspark dist.  That is probably the best way to go.

Mike, located in the Siskiyou mountains, Southern, OR 292 powered 1946 Ford 1/2 ton, '62 Mercury Meteor, '55 Country Squire (parting out), '64 Falcon, '54 Ford 600 tractor.

In the process of rebuilding our 292 and I want to go through the dist. How much slop is acceptable in the bushings (do they have bushings in the housing, like a SBC?) Anyone used a pertronix, are they happy with it?

What steps should we take, things to look for etc.? Thanks-