Marty's post and some recent activity leads me to this question. The loadomatic was used to '56 in V-8s and all the way up to '64 in I-6's. Better distributors were available well before 1956. I have a Studebaker distributor made by Autolite from 1950 for their flathead 6, with the same vacuum advance used by Ford from '57 on, and also with the same or very similar mechanical advance weights.
Were there any advantages to the Lodo other than expense to manufacture? Studebaker and Rambler were the low cost kings of the time, so expense doesnt seem to be the driver.

 

Excellent question, but I have no answer. My 223 I-6 just has vacuum advance and when it doesn't work the power loss is huge. On the long grade leading to my house I can easily maintain the 45 mph speed limit, when my vacuum advance broke one time I couldn't get over 30 mph on the same grade..

Jim

 

An elder {Senior} engineer retired. Someone who "Knew" all the fancy new stuff was just a flash in the pan... When he walked with his new watch, they canceled all new orders...
Used to was that Henry wanted to get as few parts as possible. I read somewhere that he finally got a carburetor that was assembled using one bolt for the whole thing. He was pleased, but the engineers had a hard time making it 'good'.
Same with the original V8. He wanted the block and bell housing cast as one piece, I assume to save machining and assembly time. I don't think it worked as well as expected as they had a heck of a time getting the castings to come out usable. Many re-designs later, they finally were successful. Reduced parts count, but was maybe not such a good idea?
The engineer that retired was brought up to please Mr F. in his engineering ways.
tom