Question about an old distributor

We encountered a problem saturday with Choppers new engine and I was wondering if anyone here might have some working knowledge about the old Mallery distrubitors.

The one in question has a tech drive,,,does not have the external vaccum on it.

Does it have to the be connected to the tack itself for the internal advance springs and weights to work correctly?HRP

 

HUH??? So you have a mechanical advance Mallory dizzy with a tach drive, right?
The advance will work fine, w or w/o the tach cable hooked up, it just drives the tach....has no affect on advance....
I have one on my A pickup.....

 

The tach drive does not make any difference on the advance, so you will be fine running it without.

 

Ok,,help me trouble shoot,,,,the damn thing ain't advancing when it's reved up to break in the cam.

It was working fine a month ago before the engine was rebuilt.HRP

 

if the distributor isn't advancing mechanically , the weights/springs must be stuck. take it apart and look..it should be a very simple mechanism

 

The advance weights are below this plate. Someone bent the weight limits on mine that prevented them from working.



This is the advance unit. If it was working it could be that the springs either broke or came off giving you full advance all the time with no springs to return the weights at lower RPMs. It's very simple and easy to check to see what's not working and why.