Hello All... Trying to get my 56 Mercury running after sitting for 20 years. I have many things to do but right now I am trying to start the motor. I have it now where the motor will turn over but wouldn't fire up. I am replacing cap, rotor, wires, coil, points, plugs, and condenser. Purchased all these parts new from C&G Ford parts (I will also contact them next week if I can't sort this out). I attempted to replace the points, however, as you can see by the pics, they are different... Have done searches and everything I see pictured looks like they sent me the correct points... Also inside the distributor appears to have metal filings??? ...included pics...
I'll bet you ordered parts for a '56 didn't you.... Your motor has had the distributor swapped for a later model type (required because of the carb swap). You need '57-74 ignition parts, not the '54-56 type. Ford used the same points, cap and rotor on all V8s through those years, most parts houses should carry them. The metal filings aren't good either. I'd recommend pulling the distributor and checking for excessive wear. Rebuilt units are still available.
Y Block distributors can send one down a rabbit hole. I betcha that's one of those now infamous Cardone 30-2808 specials? These will "work", till they don't. Like you see in the pic. Avoid like the plague. What happened, good rebuildable cores dried up, and Cardone took to using 302 distributors (or something like that) the takeaway is the length dimensions and driven gear height aren't quite the same.
Unless you're dead set on retaining points, you can get a CRT/FBO Performance electronic distributor for the y-block for less than $200 new. If you want to pay a little more, you can get one/w mechanical tach drive. Ted Eaton (eatonbalancing.com) posted a review on y-blocksforever.com. Go to "Technical" forum if you are not familiar with the site.
I believe I would pull that distributor and do a thorough cleaning. That does look like metal filings. Could be the centrifugal weights came apart and ate the housing. It does appear to be a 57 or newer distributor. 56 distributors don't have advance weights.
Down the Y Block Distributor hole I did go.... Thanks for the responses!!! I have decisions to make...
That's a good point and the rotor and cap terminals will show obvious signs of this if that's what was happening.
It appears you also have a later intake, newer than 57, and Autolite 2 barrel which needs the centrifugal distributor. I’m guessing it received them at the same time so they are FOMOCO parts so you probably have a good distributor that just needs a good rebuild. The YBlocksforever website is currently having conversations concerning this and is well worth reading. They refer to good overhaul services on both sides of the country.
A "good rebuild" isn't difficult as such but it is a lot more complicated than it might seem at first glance, now add that to the fact that critical parts are getting difficult to source. That's what caused Cardone to try a workaround in the first place, I expect.
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