The " ford flathead helment is not my favorite ( love the crabs) but sometimes ya got to do one any way. Customer walks in with 36 Ford helment style unit , greasy with coil. Is running a 8 volt system. ( at least better than 6 ). On the bench ready for tear down.....lets take a quick spin on the distributor machine see what its doing ?? Its a Allen Testproducts Syncograph machine the caddy of machines. Not good for sure ( there should only be eight arrows) later will show point pivots are worn out !!!! Bouncing contacts........ A quick tear down shows rust and wear ever where...... All down into the hot tub and clean er up!!! Clean and polish all parrts , grab some new contacts and a condensor and retest. WOW , what a difference !!!!!
OK some more details...the condensor tested at less than .20 mfds. I like to see thes at a minimum of .25 to .28 mfds. This will fix the arcing points issue for sure. Note : On these i use a .40 condensor from a vertex magneto and have found that when used with the correct ignition coil the contacts will last forever ..... Also the mech advance was only 4 degrees at 3000 rpm.(eight engine) After just a clean and buff its back to spec at 9 degrees (18 degrees engine) with some lube and we now have good clean spark all the way up to 4000 plus rpm..... Got to be a happy customer now.!!!!!!
I would love to see how it runs on the motor it's intended for. I'll bet it never ran so good. Well, at least not since it was only a couple of years old. Thanks for letting us see how it's done correctly. Frank
Where do you get your condensors from? Why do you use a Vertex mag condensor and what makes them different from any other condensor?
Great post with nice pics and explanation. Want to add the words, Sun Distributor Tester machine, to make sure this also comes up when someone does a search on Sun machines.
My condensors ( .40 mfds) are Vertex take offs, my friend builds magnetos and wont chance a old vertex part. I buy his take offs. I sell these for $20 and include shipping. Work great on the old dual point flatheads and mallorys etc. No arc when running ........
"Actually its a Allen Testproducts Syncograph machine.." Roger that. I was thinking too much ... like the old story: Guy falls in a cesspool/septic tank. What should he yell? He should yell, "Fire!" Because if he yelled, "Shit!" who would come running? Fewer posts on Allens, more on Suns which has become the generic (and really not enough on either) ... but you're are right, AND we now have them both covered. Still, nice post.
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