Distributor question

also if your prematurely burning points you may have a bad resistor wire or none at all. This is why Factory HEI is so cool to use.

 

I want to thank everyone for the great advice!!!!
I will be adjusting the carb and will wait until winter to reposition the distributor...
I will also be checking the Vacuum advance for leaks and checking all the bolts on the intake and nuts on the carb...

 

WagonKiller I do have a vacuum pump - what is the best way to check the advance...

 

I was talking about vacuum leaks in general. Also, just because the intake and carb bolts are tight doesn't mean there isn't a leak there. On my Crown Vic I wound up replacing the base plate on the carb because the secondary throttle shaft was leaking. I can also disconnect all vacuum to any sensors or actuators by plugging one fitting on the intake manifold. If it runs better after that at least you know the engine is probably okay and the leak is somewhere else.

 

attach the vacuum pump and pump it (suction side) of the vacuum advance. should pull it in and hold. If it does NOT move or moves but does not hold the diaphragm is bad.

 

I'm not getting in to all the "pain and suffering" you've gone thru. Would it just be easier to drive it to a diagnostic tune shop and let them do their thing? It would answer a lot of your questions. FYI the last time I did it was with my 67 Plymouth (440-4spd). His equipment told me my distributor was worn to the point that the spark plugs didn't fire "on time" and there wasn't an adjustment in the world I could make that would fix the problem EXCEPT replace/rebuild the distributor.

 

No fun in that! I enjoy turning wrenches! Vac Adv good- Carb adjusted - put 400 miles on her today and no issues!

 

Breaker plates are famous for that. Another reason to go electronic ignition.

 

And bushings

 

Bushings are what make the breaker plate wonky. Luckily, on Fords, they're installed on the plate. You can replace the breaker plate, but the last couple I used on my '74 Ranchero Squire were rebuilt crap, so I bought a reman dizzy. It worked, but if it, too, was crap, I would've done the Duraspark swap.

 

Ultimately,this was what was wrong with my '73 Ford w/400 CID engine--the replacement distributor was NFG,the plate was all over the place. I went with a NEW distributor when I figured it out,after 9765 miles of engine going buggity buggity,and many sets of points/condenser,etc.