Took her for a spin out on the highway. Runs real good, but something that is strange - installed the body of the dizzy in approx. the same spot as the old one. That turned out to be way retarded timing wise. Dialed it in w/ the vacuum gage and couldn't hear any ping on the highway on hard acceleration so halfway through the run advanced the timing a bit more. Still no ping, but running out of room to advance the body of the distributor, because the vacuum chamber is starting to bump against the intake manifold. What's up with that?

 

How much initial advance do you have?

 

No idea, Charlie. My timing light died years ago, and up until a couple days ago was tough to use one anyway on account of a slipped damper. Have always just advanced timing for highest vacuum and back off a bit and lock er down.

Seems like the vacuum advance ain't vacuuming.

 

If it really needs more advance, then you can lift the entire distributor out, rotate it one tooth counterclockwise and reinstall and you will have more adjustment.

Most of the time the vacuum advance gets ported vacuum and there should be no vacuum at idle, and therefore no additional advance at idle. You can test the vacuum advance with a vacuum pump or temporarily connect it to a manifold vacuum source. If the idle speed picks up, it is working.

 

Really? I'll have to read that a few more times because my brain hurts thinking about it. Why didn't dropping the body of the new dizzy in the same rough position as the old result in the same deal??

This is like two inches more in the clockwise direction than the old one. And no ping. In fact it seems kinda anemic now, though it runs a lot better if that makes sense.

When it first started it sounded like a tractor and was drawing about 10 inches of vacuum. I was happy to see it settle down and smooth out at 19 or 20 inches when I advanced it, but it's out of adjustment room physically now. Or getting close.

 

 

It could be any number of reasons from the old one being incorrectly installed to begin with to manufacturing tolerances to differences between the Motorcraft and Autolite distributors.

I'd get a timing light and see where it is at.

 

This is the correct port for advance? It's what I been usin fer a while. Let's back up a bit here - Betcha I DIDN'T get teeth lined up correctly at the #1 cylinder.

One tooth off is not equal to one cylinder is it. I was thinking one tooth off = not run at all, or belching fire, cats and dogs living together, etc. Bet if I skip one or even two teeth back (counterclockwise) the dizzy body will be right in there where it was?

 

I don't know about that carb. Based on the position of that port, my best guess is manifold vacuum which will work fine. It requires a little different tune but if it is the way you had it before, it should make no difference.
Assuming it is manifold vacuum, if you disconnect the hose, the idle speed should drop. Is that the port you use to check your vacuum?

One tooth does not equal one cylinder and sometimes is just what is needed. It may be what is needed in your case, assuming that the initial timing is not yet reasonable. One tooth should put it right about where your old distributor was.

 

No, for vacuum gage port the lowermost manifold vacuum is used as it's "on" all the time. didn't think the actual manifold vacuum was supposed to be used for advance? will get the teeth straightened out tomorrow.

One thing noticed, the exhaust used to be acrid or make yer eyes burn. It must have been missing pretty bad and passing unburned fuel or something. That "feature" is gone too. Seems to warm up a lot quicker too, don't hardly need the choke on startup? Hey THANKS Charlie, for taking the time to explain all this. Think I got a handle on it now.

Next up on deck is to replace the fuel tank. Burned off a bit of fuel in the last couple days, but don't want to siphon off the old fuel + 50 years of crap into the new one, nor "run out" of fuel on the road. 3/4 of a tank is probably too heavy to move around easily and is kinda hazardous so figuring on filling three empty 2.5 gallon cans have laying around, and then remove the old tank. Have a 14 gallon fuel caddy, will empty that into the new fuel tank, and then empty the rest of the old tank into the now empty14 gallon caddy. I guess. Sure glad there ain't a river involved too! Thanks again. Ted

 

It's not as common and requires a bit of a different tune, but works just fine.

 

Well it took a couple tries, but one tooth over got everything lined up just as before. Thanks again Charlie couldn't have done it without ya! Ted

edit - hey one thing I wondered about. When timing is too far advanced on an engine, the engine doesn't want to turn over, the starter will balk. Why is that, as if the position of the dizzy body affect compression. That can't be. The fuel is igniting early I guess.