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Group: Forum Members
Last Active: 6 Years Ago
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I've been running a Mallory Unilite 3838701 (mechanical only, tach drive) for the last 18 months. It was a cheap way to get my '55 bird running again, along with a used "B" manifold and 4160 carb. The car ran very strong, including a delightful 1000 mile round trip excursion to the CTCI regional with my son. Couldn't be happier with the performance. I have about 5K mi on the rebuilt motor now.
Well, Sunday the car started acting up... it idled low and rough, and would start coughing if I gave it over half throttle under load. It just wasn't making power! Got were I needed to go, and smelled burning plastic... the tach cable was melting to the battery heat shield! The engine compartment was remarkably hot. I immediately figured it was a spark advance issue.
After I got home, I checked the timing... it was extremely erratic! It seemed to shift around while I was watching... at first I though my timing light was screwed up. When I pulled the cap and the rotor, I found that the base plate under the advance mechanism could move back and forth a little, maybe 10-15 degrees. Bummer... I'm hoping that a roll pin didn't back out or shear off, and is now in the bottom of my oil pan (or worse)! I won't have time to pull the dizzy for another week or so. It could be a simple fix... but I kind of doubt it.
Anyone else have mechanical problems with the Unilite 3838701? Perhaps they are so cheap on Amazon for a reason?
In the meantime, I picked up a '57 Mercury dual-point tach drive dizzy on eBay. I have actually been considering this for a while now, and this was a "good excuse" to pull the trigger. Vacuum advance is probably a good thing on a street machine.
I'll update this thread when I figure out what went wrong with the Mallory.
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