Hello, I just purchased a 1977 F700 bucket truck with a 534 engine in it. It has been converted to a points distributor, and the points do not last very long. It seems that the eight sided rotor must have some very small pits in it, and it eats away at the little plastic tooth on the points that opens up the points as the rotor goes around. The previous owner said that the rotor was rusted when he installed it, and no matter how much he has cleaned it, that it quickly wears the plastic tooth away and the point gap needs to be reset. It doesn't really feel that bad though.

I went to the car parts store to buy a new distributor, and it has one vacuum line - in the usual location. When I got home, I found out that the one in the 534 actually has four external connections. One is for the tachometer, the other three are vacuum lines, and one goes to the right hand side of the carb, one goes to the right hand side of the carb into a diaphram, and one goes into the left hand side of the carb. The question is, do I need all these vacuum lines, and what do they do? Oh, and another question - the salvage yard didn't have one either - any good places to look for one? Thanks, Greg

 

Consider one of the electronic conversion kits. The name Petronics comes to mind. I'm sure there are others that people will mention. Basicly the points are replaced with a solid-state pick-up unit that fits inside your existing distributor. I had the same problem with an old Mercedes Benz years ago. Good luck.

 

...Welcome Greg, to Ford Truck Enthusiasts!

See you on the boards. ….

 

Thanks for the welcome, Tim. And thanks, Holland501, for the thought on the electronic conversion. I just cannot understand why the previous owner removed the electronic ignition and put in points - other than he apparently understands points better than electronics. Perhaps he felt that if the electronic ignition failed while on a service call, that he was stranded, whereas, with points, a dollar bill to clean the contacts and a screwdriver to adjust the gap was all that would ever be needed to get home again.

Any ideas on what those extra vacuum lines do that I mentioned? One side of me thinks that they could be plugged, to allow a more standard distributor to be installed, but the other side of me says that they are there for a reason.

Greg

 

Governor. A wild beast like a 534 quickly spins out of control without one. Why, imagine this thing at 10,000 rpm.... Actually, I think they throw rods at 4000 rpm. Since it works with the distributor and carb, you may be ok with just one part of it functioning, although I'd try to either make it work like OEM, or eliminate it. My dad put a non-governed 2bbl on his 292 and the distributor governor still worked. Not sure it works the other way around.

 

Hi Sport45 - Thanks for the offer to help with the information. I tried to reply to your message, but the mailing system is prohibiting my sending you my e-mail address in private, so here it is in public. Somehow, it is thinking that my address is a website, and not letting me respond to you. Gschilling@esilab.com is my address, and yes, I am very interested in any diagrams and literature that describe the distributor system. Thank you for taking the time to help!

 

Greg,

I just emailed the scans from my shop manuals. You can edit your email address out of the above post if you want.

 

Thank you Sport45 - They look great!

Good idea about the editing of the address, but after reading the FAQ section, it appears that, if the post is editable, that there should be a little blue box that says "edit" somewhere in the post. This does not appear to be an option this time. It is a shame that we have to do this to protect ourselves. I have never understood why a person would try to do damage to the computer of someone else whom they have never known. Besides, I am pretty good at taking myself out on the computer without any help at all!

 

Hey there. I converted my 534 over to the pertronix kit, and it made a world of difference. I also used an MSD ingnition box with a rev limiter built in. I can't honestly say if there was an increase in fuel mileage, but the whole works ran better than it did when I bought my truck. The conversion was done more for reliablility than for performance. Go with a pertronix kit, and you won't be sorry.