Need junk pre '75 Chevy distributor

69427

The Artist formerly known as Turbo84
Joined
Mar 30, 2008
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Clinging to my guns and religion in KCMO.
Just doing some electronic ignition retrofit work, and am striking out finding an old points distributor. Anyone got one gathering dust they'd like to donate? I'll pay the postage. Don't need a tach drive unit, as I'm under the impression that the undercap parts are the same for Corvette and non-Corvette applications. The donator is welcome to do any grinding or hammering on any external surface in the event there's suspicion I'm trying to get a free part for my car.
Other 8 cylinder GM distributors are welcomed, assuming they share the same internal parts and dimensions as Chevrolet distributors.

Thanks,
Mike
 
Just doing some electronic ignition retrofit work, and am striking out finding an old points distributor. Anyone got one gathering dust they'd like to donate? I'll pay the postage. Don't need a tach drive unit, as I'm under the impression that the undercap parts are the same for Corvette and non-Corvette applications. The donator is welcome to do any grinding or hammering on any external surface in the event there's suspicion I'm trying to get a free part for my car.
Other 8 cylinder GM distributors are welcomed, assuming they share the same internal parts and dimensions as Chevrolet distributors.

Thanks,
Mike

MIKE, Quid pro quo......I O U, so gimme your addy, and U got one, from my old 350 SBC powered motor home....Van 30 chassis....
points, engine runs fine, got a HEI for the application just TODAY, this AM, and so have already contacted Jeff/Bird about parts/tuning for use....

so the old one is yours....

:wink::noworry:
 
Gene, I appreciate the offer. I'll PM my address to you. :thumbs:

Phil, thanks for the offer, but I'm trying to mix and match some reluctor wheels and pickup coils into the old point type distributors. Your '85 is too new, other than from a possible internal parts usage standpoint. (Hey, keep in touch. I'm working on getting the new engine put together and installed before the next trip north. Looking forward to seeing everyone again.)
 
Gene, I appreciate the offer. I'll PM my address to you. :thumbs:

Phil, thanks for the offer, but I'm trying to mix and match some reluctor wheels and pickup coils into the old point type distributors. Your '85 is too new, other than from a possible internal parts usage standpoint. (Hey, keep in touch. I'm working on getting the new engine put together and installed before the next trip north. Looking forward to seeing everyone again.)

I will dig around and see if I have any old points type. I might have a old buick or pontiac points one also, you need those if I find them?
 
Kicking around some ideas.

Got a points distributor from Gene yesterday (beer and lunch is on me at our next VM gathering, Gene), and disassembled it. I'm trying a couple things I've wanted to do for a while, using some (Chrysler distributor) parts I've had sitting in my tool box for years.

Here's a picture of the pickup coil sitting on the breaker plate. A little bit of work, and it should mount on the plate fairly well. (The HEI pickup coil on the left fits on the old distributor too, but the height is too high, and I'm initially trying for some retrofit ideas without having to machine/cutup an original distributor, particularly if it's a mechanical tach drive unit.)

IM001323.jpg

And a (fuzzy) closeup of the pickup coil height, which initially looks to package decently under the weight/spring tabs. Hopefully no rotor hangdown issues to complicate things.

IM001322.jpg

And the close, but still unsolved, problem of trying to incorporate the reluctor wheel in place of the points cam. I'd like to be able to machine off some of the cam lobe height and press on the wheel, but I don't have a lathe. Additionally, the ID/OD measurements are in the wrong direction for a simple bore one out and slide it over the other. But I've only got about two hours of time into it so far, so we'll see what happens with a little more time and thought into this.

IM001325.jpg
 
Spent a few more minutes on the setup today. Looks like stuff will fit, space-wise. The pickup coil should be easy to mount once I have the reluctor wheel installed. I'm trying to use the stock breaker plate as it has the bushing area to rotate around during vacuum advance operation, and duplicating this would be a PITA.

IM001327.jpg

Looks like if I can machine away the points cam, down to just a cylindrical shape similar to the area under the weights, I think I should then be able to press fit the reluctor wheel on by boring out the wheel ID for an interference fit onto the remainder of the "cam" area. Life would have been easier if the cam diameter was about .050" bigger, which would have allowed the reluctor wheel to be pressed on without much machining to the wheel. (The bottom half of the wheel is bored out bigger than the top half seen in the picture.)

IM001329.jpg
 
I'm embarrassed on how long this project is taking. One bright note is I did get my SUN machine back a couple months ago. I gave it to a former coworker when I moved to Florida several years ago, and last fall when I was back in Indiana visiting friends my old coworker was kind enough to offer it back to me, so I loaded it up in the trailer and it's back in my shop again.
Got the points cam turned down, and the reluctor wheel pressed on, and am now working on positioning the VR sensor.

IM002361_zpsc620c956.jpg
 
Got the VR sensor mounted on the breaker plate. Everything seemed to fit pretty well other than the rotor screws were too long and lightly scraped the top of the sensor. I cut the unthreaded bevel off the screws and everything turns pretty smoothly now.


IM002367_zpsda8aad15.jpg


Finally found most of the distributor parts that I misplaced/lost after the move from Florida. The only part I haven't found yet is the snap ring thing that secures the breaker plate from moving vertically. I have no idea where the heck I would look in town to find one. So far that's the only thing stopping me from spinning the distributor and checking out the sensor output, and also allowing me to test/measure a few of the spare coils I have lying around to see if I want to swap one of them into the car.

Edit: Anyone know if Bird is still doing distributor stuff? If so, how could I contact him to see if he has an inventory of small parts? Thanks.
 
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Got bored so I hooked the distributor to my scope. Spun it up and down and things looked pretty good.

IM002373_zpsece03fc0.jpg

I still have to adjust the air gap yet, and I'll do that after I put the breaker plate retaining ring in, which I finally found, thank goodness. I'm also wiring up an HEI module to hook to this so I can exercise the ignition coils I have.
 
Hitachi scopes??? newbie......MY scope is a 453 Tektronics.....been a few decades on you.....

as to Jeff I have to do some searches on various facebook related groups, maybe twitter....??? and possible to hook you up.....

been a while....I hear from one of the fellows out there sometimes....


oh well....


:zzz:
 
Gene, If they'd send me back to JAX I'd let you buy me dinner..:drink:

I talked to Bird today- I'll get his phone number to you. I'll have dinner with him Tuesday.
 
Hitachi scopes??? newbie......MY scope is a 453 Tektronics.....been a few decades on you.....

as to Jeff I have to do some searches on various facebook related groups, maybe twitter....??? and possible to hook you up.....

been a while....I hear from one of the fellows out there sometimes....


oh well....


:zzz:

Tektronix scopes are for you 1 percenter types. Regular folk like me can only afford a u-build-it Heathkit model or a hand me down Hitachi. :amused:
 
Hitachi scopes??? newbie......MY scope is a 453 Tektronics.....been a few decades on you.....

as to Jeff I have to do some searches on various facebook related groups, maybe twitter....??? and possible to hook you up.....

been a while....I hear from one of the fellows out there sometimes....


oh well....


:zzz:

Tektronix scopes are for you 1 percenter types. Regular folk like me can only afford a u-build-it Heathkit model or a hand me down Hitachi. :amused:

:shocking: Old lab gear surplus from the Feds, don't forget I came from 53 years in the DC region....so it goes for next to nothing, years ago when I was in Jr. High Skool, I had a cousin who was much older and so in the Navy, told stories that just broke my heart, the Bayonne N.J. electronics dump for the Atlantic fleet, used to take perfectly good Teck/H.P. and even Watkins-Johnson gear out on barges, and dump the load into the ocean.....I shit you not......:shocking: I paid 400 bux for this scope, note it has a missing S# on the front plate....ummmm.....unsure as to why, some of that top secret shit like CIA/DIA/DOD would do that, them being paranoid as hell, but then again, it could be just old fashioned STOLEN.....I have had this scope for some 35 years or so....it even has Nuvistor tubes on the input.....and discreet transistors, never as much heat as the old 500 series scopes, that would heat the shop in the AM......
 
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