I picked up a NOS Holley Roto-Vance distributor at a garage sale. The part number is D-1941AAS. According to my Holley books it fits 56 Ford V8 with power pack 312 engine. It uses a pair of the old style Ford points with single condenser and 57 up Ford cap and rotor.



I have never owned one of these before and have never worked on one.

Has anyone had any experience with this distributor, good, bad, ugly,dead weight.

marv

Hi Marv,  I bought one of those Rotovance distributors back around 1960 by mail order.  I ran it in my '56 Fairlane 292.  I had read that the loadamatic '56 distributor wasn't compatible with multiple carbs so I bought the Holley.  I had it recurved and it worked fine for several thousand miles.  Eventually I noticed that the engine wanted to kick back when I tried to start it- it turned out that the little round weights had stuck in the full advance position, so I had something like 36 degrees advance all the time.  With the low compression "B" heads the car would still run fine, and I didn't notice any pre-ignition.  So I replaced the Holley distributor with a Mallory with dual points.  I'd say to make sure the weights are free to move and enjoy your new distributor.  Good luck, Nick Brann - K.C., MO

Marv:

I also bought one mail order about the same time Nick did.  Used it on my '56 312 with 3-2s, set it up for centrifugal advance only.  Sure ran better than the loadomatic.  I don't know what ever happened to it, it may have been on the car when I traded it off in '64.

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

Thanks for the replies.

According to the info I can gather from a repair manual is that the distributor has both mechanical and vacuum advance.

The car I was thinking of trying it on is my 56 Crown which is a 292 totally stock with Holley teapot (lincoln carb) presently running a load-o-matic distributor still has points in it.



Do you recall how the vacuum advance operated with a teapot.

marv

Hi Marv,  On my 292 I didn't use the Rotovance with the original '56 teapot.  I had a set of the '57 factory dual quads and later I switched to 3-2's on an edelbrock manifold.  FYI, the lowend and midrange torque with the 3-2's (Stromberg 48's) was much better than the dual teapots.  The Rotovance is more like a '57 OE distributor as far as the vacuum advance goes, in other words, don't hook up the Rotovance to your teapot.  They are not compatible.  Like John did, run it with centrifugal advance only.  If you go to a later model carb like a Holley 4150/4160 (or Carter AFB) then you can use the vacuum advance of the Rotovance.  Hope this helps, I'm having fun remembering the good old days.  Nick Brann - K.C., MO

Thanks Nick, that is what I wanted to know. As I said I have no experience on this distributor.





I don't want to change my teapot as it works great and the present load-o-matic works well also. It just was the nostalgia of maybe getting something better than I already have.



I was hoping the vacuum advance could be used with the teapot.

I only have $5.00 invested in it so not a loss, will make a good conversation piece or find

3 deuces ha!

marv