I have a 1953 ford Customline with a 215 inline 6. So for the past few months, I have been trying to trace a down a noise, that seems to progress worse when the car gets up to speed at about 50 55. The noise sounds like a fluttering noise. I have new points, plugs, wires, cap, rotor. The carb has 20hg's of vacuum. I did a compression check with 120 per cyl. So distributor gurus, The distributor is original and I was wondering if there should be any freeplay in the the shaft up and down or side to side. There does seem to be a mill. of freeplay from side to side, but up and down on the shaft, there seems to enough freeplay, to where you can here it making a clunking sound. You can also see the freeplay when you pull up and down on the shaft. I did take notice also that a few months ago I put a new rotor on and notice that a chunk of the metal part of the rotor was broke and replaced it with a new rotor. So all said and done is this creating my points to float and misfire creating the fluttering sound? If this is the cause should I have my distributor rebuilt or buy a new one? Thanks fellas.
whoa! not that much omg! no the metal was there but a small chunk was taken out of the metal on the rotor. But is that what was wrong with your distributor GIMPYSHOTRODS?
Worn bushings. Shaft climbed up and the rotor hit the poles inside the cap. Oddly, it still ran. Not well mind you, but it did run.
Pull the distributor and take a look, the gear for the cam shaft rides right below the distributor housing. It is held on by a pin, so that may have sheared. I've never actually pulled a 215/223 distributor apart, so I'm not sure what holds the shaft from making any up and down movement. Take a look at this thread for pictures, and info on converting to a 300 six distributor. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=748185
Hardware store it is just a roll pin. I donot know what a mill of play is, are we trying to say thousandth in metric or??? You should not have a lot of up and down play like around .002-.003 is what I go by if I donot have a manual to look at. Many of them get shimed even from the factory and shims may have been worn completely away on the last 50 or 60 years. While I had it apart I would give a good close look at the lower bushing they also wear out.
1958 factory Edsel manual says endplay for V8 distributor is 0.022" - 0.030" . Surprisingly tighter 0.005" -0.008" for sixes. I was surprised there is no value for the radial/diametrical shaft to bushing clearance. Instead the prescribed test method is use a fish scale to pull on the shaft while the dist is in a distributor machine spinning 500 rpm. 16 ounces of pull should not change dwell more than 3 degrees. So I guess if the dwell changes more than 3 degrees on the car, the bushings are suspect, too.
Well there ya go the manual gives you way more slop that I would have given you. Pretty easy to tell if the bushing is shot, the wear is always on the side away from the cam shaft. Not always easy to buy a new bushing. Last time I was b trying to buy a distributer shaft bushing I was told that you would have to be quite a machinst to install on properly and the company in question would not sell me one. So I made my own from Oil-lite bronze, better bushing anyway. I guess I must be quite a machinist. Ooops, meant to mention this, Dan thanks for the proper information.
You may be over thinking the issue......If the engine pulls 20 inches of vac and runs good , odds are the distributor is ok. This unit drives the oil pump off a shaft coming into the lower drive gear etc.I would suggest pulling the unit and look that part over real good. I would be more than glad to help you any way possible with the old unit......
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