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Thanks for the advice. The balancer does have a mark larger than all of the rest at 6 degrees BTDC, so maybe this does all add up properly for this motor. Also, any leads on a kit for a Duraspark distributor, or are the spring dimensions standard? I'm combing the web for kits and they all seem to be labeled for GM (the Mr. Gasket kits), HEI (not sure what this is), or aftermarket performance distributors like MSD. Would these springs work all the same for my distributor?
Mr. Gasket 925D gets two medium springs. I thought I mentioned this already, maybe not.
Remember can bend the spring arms to increase or decrease spring tension as well, this will bring in the timing sooner if desired. It's definitely tedious to setup a distributor without a distributor machine, but there's no other way to do it without some test drives and experimenting a bit. Do this with the vacuum advance disconnected and plugged.
When the mechanical curve is satisfactory, then re-connect the vacuum advance, more test drives, and adjust only the vacuum canister for correct operation under part throttle and flat ground cruise conditions.
More options is the Crane unit And also more costly. https://www.summitracing.com/int/par...07-1/make/ford but also gives you a fully adjustable advance pot. I can not recall off hand but either the GM or the Mopar springs are the same as Ford.
Now since you want your timing to ramp up fast the heavy spring should be loose with some play (about 1MMish) at rest this can be achieved by bending the mounting tabs these tabs are there to increase or decrease tension on the springs allowing for earlier full in or faster ramp up of the igntion curve with the installed springs.
I made a tool years ago that fits in where the rotor goes on the reluctor that allows me to use a dial Inch pound torque wrench to see exactly how much I'm changing the tension to pull in the mech advance.
I had always meant to find a used dist machine but one has never offered it's self up.
Ford Racing used to offer a spring kit. Looked like all the others, but since it was from Ford it said it was for Ford distributors. Not sure if they still offer it, as it's been a long time and they tend to drop parts pretty quickly.
When you see "HEI" all in caps it's usually to mean GM's common ignition from the mid-seventies to whenever they stopped making them. The letters actually stand for High Energy Ignition but have become generic now along with Positraction, big-block/small-block, and quite a few other things that were at one time GM only.
Generically though, "hei" did stand for most early electronic ignitions as just short for the previously mentioned high-energy ignition. It was a point trying to be made for going away from points, but the GM version became ubiquitous.
And now the aftermarket even makes distributors for our Fords and other engines that are basically GM HEI setups with the shaft and gear to fit Ford engines. Started by DUI (Davis Unified Ignition company) several years ago now, you can get them from several Chinese knockoff companies now.
Lots of Ford owners using them with good (and some mixed) results.
matthewq4b, Tedster9, and 1Tonbasecamp, thank you for the continued information! You guys have taught me a lot and I enjoy the learning process and I feel like I'm getting somewhere. Today I bent both of the tabs but I think I still need lighter springs, as I haven't seen much effect in the advance. It doesn't really seem like its even starting to really come in until between 2000 and 2500rpms. One is "loose" by about a mm, but I was being pretty conservative with my bending and the other still has a little bit of tension. It got dark out so I'll have to post pone more fiddling until tomorrow. Off to order lighter springs!
Progress! My two spring kits came in the mail yesterday. Below is a picture comparing all of the springs. As you can see, all the springs are roughly the same size, albeit some obvious differences. Any of them will fit, perhaps with a tiny bit of persuasion to get them around the studs, onto the Duraspark distributor. I should point out that all of the skinny springs are substantially stiffer than the 3 with wider coils. I used the two new ones and I'm getting more advance sooner. With my base timing 6 deg BTDC, I'm hitting about 30 deg at around 2400. Unfortunately, I failed to order timing tape and it seems like the timing marks start jumping around an awful lot by the time I'm around 30 deg. Is this jumpiness typical? I'm going to play with the studs a little more and see if I can get the advance to come in a little sooner still. Ideally I should be all in at about 2500 RPMs, correct?
Thanks for the progress update! Between the selections you have there, should be able to mix and match something that will work well.
Jumpiness might be caused by an excessively loose or worn timing set, or possibly worn bushings & shaft in the distributor itself, or both. Sometimes, timing lights themselves get wonky. A timing tape is easy to make.
The Jumpiness is likely due to the timing set or possibly the timing light. The DS Distributors do not care about wear, things will have to get really sloppy (like rotor hitting cap sloppy or reluctor hitting the pick up sloppy) before it will measurably impact the stability of the ignition event. In Point distributors dist wear even small amounts (Like a few thou) can lead to spark scatter.
And you want to be fully in by at least 3K since you have alot of advance I would shoot for anything below 3000 RPM as being acceptable.
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