Be careful buying a Reman Distributor for your 351M from the Twilight Zone.

My poor old 80 Bronco got a bit doggy last time out so I decided to find out why. After a little look see I discovered that there was no mechanical advance. When I grabbed the rotor and gave her a twist, nop no more advance, was frozen.
Ok so off to the yellow pages I go letting my finger do the walking. After several calls I found one in stock at the Auto Zone. I watched as the friendly sales person looked it to make sure he selected the 351M in my 80 Bronco. It came up as an 80 Bronco, 58L, - Ford 351 - , V8, 2 Bbl,G Modified - A1 Cardone 30-2895 – w/o governor / single vacuum 1 ½: module not included; Modified Engine.
So off I go… Slapped her in, set the timing at 6 degrees and went for a spin only to be very disappointed. Same thing….
Checked the timing again, oops it is at 2 degrees after TDC. Ok I may old and sometimes a little slow, but I am not that bad… Checked for mechanical adv… Nop this one doesn’t have any either… Grabbed the rotor and checked for spring action and it went Ting .. Ting back and forth. My heart dropped… I’ve been horn waggled…
Pilled it out and measured the gear and it was 1 ¼” inch … I was given a Windsor dist. The gear was really chewed up…
Ok back to the Twilight Zone…. To make a long story short, the friendly sales person became unfriendly really fast. This guy proceeded to tell me that a 351M has a smaller gear and that I either have a Windsor or a 400M. He went on to tell me how he’s been a Ford Guy for years, built may race motors and I need to spend some time reading about engines so I can tell what motor I have in my Bronco.
I explained that it says right on the screen that it’s a 1 ½ gear. He called his other store and had them pull a 30-2895 off the shelf to measure the gear. He said he would get a micrometer and measure it as well. After coming back with a caliper and having a two minute discussion with his other store about how to measure the gear, “ Ah . It’s 1 and between the 1 and the two mark”, I decided this is gone on long enough. I thought I would ask for the store manager, then I looked at his badge, oops he is the store manager!!! Probably should have worn one of the many NHRA National or Division meet winners circle hats I have and asked how many of those he has??? But it was obvious that we were done here.
So, I got my money back and went across the street to Advanced Auto to order one as they were out of stock when I called.
Went to the counter and asked what brand of affordable Reman distributors they carried for a Ford 351M. The friendly sales person said “A1 Cardone”. My heart dropped again… I said “Thank you but no thanks”. He said “You the one that called this morning?” I said “Yes and I already had an “A1 Cardone” and it didn’t have the right gear, heck it was probably a Windsor dist”. He said “Been to the Twilight Zone have you?” I said “yes as I walked to the door”. He said “Let me get you the part you need, I don’t have it in stock, but I will drive to the warehouse myself and bring it to the store, your house or where ever you need it!! I can have it within 1 hour.” I said” Ah ok the store would be fine”
We looked up the “A1 Cardone” part for an 80 Bronco, 58L, - Ford 351 - , V8, 2 Bbl,-,G Modified. His database said 30-2893!!!!!!! “– w/o governor / single vacuum 1 ½: module not included; Modified Engine.“
I said
We looked up the 30-2895 and it IS for a Windsor. “w/o governor / single vacuum 1 1/4: module not included; Windsor Engine.

I looked up the part on the Auto Zone web site and it definitely is wrong. It shows 30-2895 for an 80 Bronco with 351M ( Code G) engine…



The Advance Web site shows it correct…

So be careful when you go to the Twilight Zone to buy a dist for your 351M, there database is wrong…

 

I don't buy squat from the zone.. Always the wrong part, or cheep junk.....

 

that isn't what jesse james says.... right, like he ever bought anything but window wash there!

 

Maybe you should shoot Auto-zone an email (in fact copy and paste what you wrote here) I bet they look into it. If they don't change it within a month, then you'd have a good reason to write Jesse (James) a nasty letter... :-)
Glad you got the bronk running again. Plus, looks like advance has your business for their customer service. That was above and beyond... unless the warehouse was in the adjoining building....
Tony