Mopar Flathead 6 distributor upgrade....48 Desoto

Well Ol' Fernando( 48 Desoto) was away for the summer, now he's back home for more work this winter. Hope to have it running by next spring.

Anyway I've been working on a few changes/upgrades for the rebuilt flathead I have sitting on the shop floor.

This upgrade I did is combining a flathead 6 dizzy with a more modern slant 6 dizzy with Electronic ignition.

Anyway here's a step by step on how I did it.

Here they are side by side...





Now torn down...

 

I had a wee bit of a time getting the lower collar off the flatty distributor. The pin would not move...I tried heat, penetrating fluid etc. SO eventually I had to hack it off with my dremel and a hacksaw.



Here you can see how similar the two main shafts are.





The main difference...other then the distributor drive portion...was in the mounting for the mechanical advance weights. The flatty weights use a smaller mounting lug on the main shaft plate then the slant 6 one does. So you can't swap them. I weighed the weights and they were all 55g, so the only difference would be in the springs and when they would come in.

So I cleaned up the original flatty weights and springs, lubed them up and re-installed.

 

So now came the hard part. The shaft bore on the flatty distributor, the part that runs down in to the motor, was 1.060". The Slant 6 dizzy bore was 1.090. SO I had 30 thou I had to remove. Well I don't have a lathe, or access to one so I did it the old fashion way....sand paper, micrometer and a couple hours.

I did the hard cutting with some 60 grit band saw paper and then used small, varying size strips of 100 grit to slowly polish it down to the right size.

Few pics...





And all done...

 

Here you can see the two bushings that run between the weights. The one on the right is the flatty, the left is the slanty. You will need to use the slanty one so when the top plate goes on all your clearances will be right.



There is a bushing/washer that runs on the bottom of the plate, between the plate and the distributor housing itself. The flatty shaft/plate junction has a slight lip so it runs the bushing on the right. I tried using it but the collar would not allow the shaft to drop down far enough to get the collar on the lower section of the distributor. SO I re-installed the original slanty one, on the flathead shaft. Not a perfect fit but should be OK I hope....



Now in slides the shaft...lubed it up good.

 

Since I destroyed the original collar from the flatty I had to use the slant 6 lower collar. It wasn't a perfect fit. The shaft center lines did not match up. I had to find a drill bit just a hair smaller then the shaft through the distributor shaft and then drill through. Once that was done it was tap the roll pin into place.



Then cleaned up the original flatty mounting plate and installed. Not sure of the reasoning behind the timing marks plate that was on there, but I did not re-install it.

 

Then it was re-install the vacuum advance, top plate assembly and all is done...





I hope all works properly when I finally get my motor installed into Ol' Fernando. Will definitely give an update when i do.

 

Pretty nifty. I did the same thing on my plymouth except I used a distributor shaft from a 318 in the slant 6 housing, I just lopped the end off and cut a new tang on the end. Your flatty should idle smoother and start easier with the electronic ignition, mine ran better after ditching the points.

 

Cool tech. I have been thinking about an up-grade and was looking at the Langton dizzy. Might just have to try this instead.

 

Im sorry to post on such an old thread..
Since the original distributor did notb have a gear drive in the shaft, how did you get the new distributor with the gear to slide into the block? I have the exact same conversion but cannot get it to slide down the block with the gear in place.

 

great old thread, tech is timeless!

 

anyone have pictures?

 

bump for pictures!

 

Yes I do, actually can PM a link for you for the recipe, it's quite simple. I am at work today, will see if I can post some pics, if not will tonight....

 

Here are 2, will post more later showing you the dizzy only.

 

Bumped up for the poster who wanted pics

 

called Langdon's 3 times today and got a weird answering machine! was wanting a new mini HEI for my 230 chrysler flathead engine!

 

Or make your own, with a /6 dizzy, and a GM HEI module. So you wanted pics you gotem.
Here is the link for the conversion process, http://p15-d24.com/topic/27231-flathead-to-slant-6-distributor-conversion/?hl=+slant++distributor