I have a 55 Fairlane 272 V8 with a Holly 4bbl carb, my vacum advance is bad and the number for my replacement is a FAB-12370-A, the stock motor comes with a 2 bbl carb, does it matter that I have the 4bbl carb or do I need a different type of vacum advance?  

Claim to fame is the car was used as an extra in the movie Diner with Micky Rourke, Steve Gootenburg, Paul Riser and Kevin Bacon.

MG; What matters is what model of 4 Bbl you have. Is it an early 4000, so called "teapot" carb or a 57 & later carb. The later carbs do not match up properly with the early vacuum only distributors. We need more info..

Paul

If its the "Teapot"carb does it not use the same "dual chamber" advance as the 56 4bbl?I didnt think they used a single chamber advance unit with the 4bbl in 55-56.

  

As far as I know, the 55 used a single chamber, 56 a dual chamber

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

The ’55 Fords with a 4V Teapot used a single port distributor vacuum chamber.  I removed the defective dual port chamber on my own ’56 Ford with Teapot and replaced it with a single port vacuum chamber off of a ’55 distributor with no observable driving differences.  I simply hooked the single port chamber up to the vacuum port at the front of the Teapot and did away with the direct vacuum hookup that was at the back of the carb that was being used with the dual port chamber.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Hello MG! I think the unit you are looking for is Ebay item #130430055549.Thats the single diaphragm unit used with the Loadomatic distributor.

  

Guys I'm mechanically challanged and I don't know what a teapot carb looks like, but I contacted the guy I bought the car from and he bought the carb new in the late 80's, it is a single vacum. Carpenter has one I purchased that is aprt# FAB-12370-A but it is much smaller than the one that is now on the car.

The one Mark suggested looks just like the one I bought from Carpenter and if so I will try to buy this one and return carpenters.

Appreciate everybody's input.

Claim to fame is the car was used as an extra in the movie Diner with Micky Rourke, Steve Gootenburg, Paul Riser and Kevin Bacon.

MG! We need to identify which style carb you have.Look at Ebay items 140450843538 and 150490572301.Which one looks like your carb?They use diferent distributors depending on what carb you have.Dont buy another advance until you look at these carbs.

  

Mark is right in that the original Load-O-Matic distributor is incompatible with the ’57 and up carburetors.  Are the breaker points in the distributor straight or curved?  Straight points would be the original Load-O-Matic distributor while a set of curved points would be a ’57 and up distributor.

 

If you can post a picture of the carb or look for some kind of identifying number on the carb (on the choke housing on the later carbs), it may be easier to put you on the right track.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

The other way to determine Loadomatic is: are there springs visible on TOP of the breaker plate when you take off the cap?