[gtobird]

Let's see how long it takes you to identify what is wrong in this picture (besides the dirt).



My car was barely running, spitting and weasing. After too much time spent on looking at the fuel system and vacuum gauge, I found this situation inside the distributor. That's right, one of the weights and springs had flown off and was laying loose under the rotor. Mind you, I hadn't even had it above 3000 rpm when this happened.

It's a new one on me. I'm just surprised it fired at all. I am however wondering if I should just replace the entire distributor. It all looks pretty aged and I'm wondering if its time has come. Is there anything better out there? I don't have any spare GM HEI distributors or I would use one of those.

Old Joe

[i82much]

Originally Posted by gtobird

Mind you, I hadn't even had it above 3000 rpm when this happened.

Well there's your problem right there!!! Everyone knows that with these old hot rods, you have to run them hard and put them up wet if you want them to run right. When you do a long, smoky burnout and then run through all the gears up to the redline, that is how you properly bed the mechanical advance springs in the distributor. If you drive like a granny, you're never going to properly bed your advance springs and you WILL HAVE PROBLEMS.

[gtokid1968]

Find a good used HEI and start over or maybe an aftermarket spring and weight set.

[steve25]

Well now that outer weight spring post is not there to have the weight pivot on so that’s a big issue.

[Dragncar]

Well you have that Petronix junk in there so the distributor has been messed with. The spring that we can see looks like it might be one of those spindly soft spring that come with kits. I wouldn't trust them to not fly off.
I bet with some OEM springs and a good set of points your problems go away.

[gtobird]

I yanked the distributor to have a closer look. As Steve25 points out, the steel post that is supposed to hold one of the weights in place is missing. I found it at the bottom of the distributor along with the spring, white plastic post bushing and button that goes under the weight. Unfortunately the post is of a press in type and the hole is no longer an interference fit. I suppose I could pull the shaft out and weld the stud in from the underside, but I don't like the thought of what that might do to the spinning assembly when I do the smokey burnouts for i82much. Reality tells me this distributor needs to be replaced. Also yes....... it does have spindly soft springs. Nothing good to say about this one. Time is not on its side.

[b-man]

Pull the shaft.

Weld the weight pivot stud from the bottom side, maybe do both while you’re at it.

New springs.

Optional - toss that Petrontics and put points in it, you decide.

Easy fast cheap fix.

I’ve had worse ones repaired, nothing wrong with giving that one a little love.

[gtobird]

Originally Posted by b-man

Pull the shaft.

Weld the weight pivot stud from the bottom side, maybe do both while you’re at it.

New springs.

Optional - toss that Petrontics and put points in it, you decide.

Easy fast cheap fix.

I’ve had worse ones repaired, nothing wrong with giving that one a little love.

Actually, my first choice would be to put a points distributor back in as I have plenty of those along with coils, wires, brackets, etc. What's holding me back is the resistor wiring circuit. The wiring has all been modified and the car now has a mini-starter. I didn't do any of it as it came this way. I'll have to see what it would take to reverse it all.

[Formulajones]

That Pertronix thing is the first problem that jumped out at me

After that, I guess one of the weights missing might cause an issue

[Tandyman]

Isn't this an HEI distributor with a Pertronix module and junk aftermarket recurve kit ?
Glenn

[gtobird]

Originally Posted by Tandyman

Isn't this an HEI distributor with a Pertronix module and junk aftermarket recurve kit ?
Glenn

Well shut my mouth

I thought it was a Pertronix unit because the dist cap, module and coil all had Pertronix flamethrower branding on them. After seeing your note, I scraped off the dirt on the outside and found a GM part number 1103276. Looks like it would have been a match for a 77 350 car.

Knowing that, is there some way of getting a new shaft? Maybe someone on this forum has one.

[Formulajones]

From what I see, it's just the stud fell out for the weight.

I've had that happen before. I just simply tack welded the stud back in place, no need to replace the whole shaft for that.

[steve25]

My only concern if you do the needed and easy repairs to it is the fact that those loose parts have been kicking around in there and beat up on those two fragile wires off of the pickup coil.

I would change that out just in case since they are prone to snapping in half just due to age even without being beat up.
Pulling the inner shaft out to do that will also give you the chance to look at that inner bearing and lube it up with some synthetic wheel bearing grease.

[gtobird]

Well, I've gone 548.3 degrees in my thinking based on all of this conversation. Here's what I'm now thinking......... I will remove the shaft and weld the stud back on since other folks have done it successfully. I will put whatever new parts in it make sense. The question is, what all should I replace? I checked the resistance of the primary and secondary windings in the coil and perfectly in spec. The cap looks a bit old and worn to me and so does the rotor (also things were bouncing around in there and may have damaged the rotor and cap). I'm guessing that everything was new at the same time. I'm thinking that I might as well replace everything labeled "Pertronix" including the coil and save all of the old parts in case someday I have a breakdown due to the distributor (not that it has ever happened to me)........ LOL

I checked the fragile wires and see no damage at all, though it doesn't mean they are in great shape.

So, let's say I do that. What brand of parts should I buy?

[Sirrotica]

Don't even think about not changing the pickup coil, those wires turn back and forth each time the vacuum advance moves, they become brittle and fray under the insulation, and will eventually fail. I've seen many of them break with way less miles than yours likely have on them.

Cap and rotor goes without saying. If you could find NOS AC Delco parts it would be the best place to start. The GM modules seemed to last much better than aftermarket stuff, if you can't find NOS, then top quality aftermarket parts.

BWD/Standard/Echlin premium lines. All made by Standard Motor Products have long been brass. If they have different price levels in a certain brand, I'd go for the higher priced ones.

One other suggestion would be to send it to a member here "Sun Tuned", he lives in Memphis. He has parts, and specializes in setting up distributors. He could dial in the centrifugal advance curve up for your engine. One stop shopping, done by a professional. Your car, your choice.

Bob Davis Distributors
901-412-4414

[Cliff R]

Those aftermarket spring/weight kits are nothing but pieces of bovine excrement anyhow. Pin falling off or not it wasn't working right to start with. I woln't touch any of that junk with a 200' pole and I doubt if Robert will either. He may have the parts to get you going correctly however.

My supply of HEI cores is dwindling and I'm not doing much of that sort of thing these days anyhow. I much prefer throwing sticks for my dogs and wondering over to the lake near the house and catching some catfish......

[OCMDGTO]

Originally Posted by Dragncar

I bet with some OEM springs and a good set of points your problems go away.

Where do points go into an HEI?

OP, Davis/DUI makes an excellent HEI dist and sells all parts for them

[Dragncar]

Originally Posted by OCMDGTO

Where do points go into an HEI?

OP, Davis/DUI makes an excellent HEI dist and sells all parts for them

I am not the only one who missed that. I guess when I seen the dreaded Petronix a points distributor came to mind.
I did some testing years ago at the track. My buddy has a Sun distributor machine and he set up a points distributor, a points distributor and a HEI with the same advance curve.
All ran the same ET-MPH at the track, well very,very close.
So I went with the points distributor triggering 7-AL2. Simply nothing to break like a Petronix or HEI.
You don,t even need a condenser for the MSD.
Went with points-MSD and never looked back.
IMO HEIs are ugly anyway.
I might try a crank trigger I have at some point but not sure its worth the hassle. It was given to me by a high level bracket racer who got tired of all the extra BS and put a all in one HEI on his engine. He had the front mount sideways distributor with the BOP belt drive and all that. Ran the same with HEI. Now I have a front mount distributor I do not know what to do with.

[gtobird]

Update: I pulled the shaft and spent some time evaluating everything I pulled out. This just keeps getting uglier. All 4 posts (two for the weights and two for the center piece) were loose (including the one that fell out) and had already been welded on from the bottom side. The shaft is worn in the lower bearing area and the spade that goes into the oil pump is worn. Better yet, the stamped rotating piece that mates with the top of the shaft is loose and can easily be tilted by hand. Complementing all of this is the aluminum body that has small pieces missing in the area that rests on the engine block when it is inserted into the hole. This thing is just too beat up to bother putting money into. Since I want to drive my car and not wait for a different distributor, I'm trying to fix it up good enough to use until I can land something else. If it runs well enough to make it through summer, I might wait til I build my 400 engine for it and then put in a points dist. I've already welded the studs back in this morning and welded the stamped piece onto the top of the shaft so it can't wobble. IF it all works, I hope to be out driving it this weekend.

I much appreciate the thoughts and comments. Easy to tell a lot of people have had bad experiences with distributors and solved them in different ways.

Old Joe