Zephyr V12 distributor rebuild or replace?

Recently bought a Lincoln Flathead V12 often called the Zephyr V12 although mine is not out of a Zephyr.. It's a early 1946 305ci model.

These engines have the very cool looking but hopelessly impractical dual 6 distributor with the integrated ignition coils. Parts for these distributors seem to be hard to find, I've found some vendors for some pieces, but other parts seem to be made out of unobtanium.

Has anyone ever converted another distributor to work on these engines?

I was looking at the older Jag v12's, they use the Lucas 36DE12 distributor, single coil, single cap with a detachable shaft and several options for electronic ignition. I'm considering trying to convert one of those for use on the Zephyr engine.

Any ideas or information would be greatly appreciated to get me along the right path to make this engine run again.

Thanks,

 

Try two EDIS 6 ignitions with a Megajolt ECU. I think you will find on the megajolt lite site http://www.autosportlabs.net/index.php?title=MegaJolt_Lite_Jr._Users_Welcome that there are one or Jag V12's running them. It may not be traditional(neither is unreliability ) but they can be hidden and the naysayers won't know what they are looking at anyway.

 

i heard you can cut 2 v6 hei's and weld the tops to your lincoln bottoms. a guy in my town converts any dizzy to hei.but only does it for the local guys.

 

Not really what I had in mind.. Cool idea though. I still want to run a conventional distributor, with an HEI or similar pickup in it and maybe in the future a megasquirt to handle the fuel and the spark for me.. Don't think I'll ever go to EDIS on this engine, the way I'm installing it without a hood, fenders or grille it will be completely exposed.

 

My daily driver is a collectible mercedes and I run EDIS on it so I can drive it everyday. It has mechanical fuel injection which has a mind of it's own,so a reliable spark is needed. No one at Concours etc has ever noticed that I don't even run a distributor. The coil packs are in the open at the moment but I have seen them hidden in model T ford trembler boxes on concours winning T's. You can even trigger the EDIS from the ring gear but every 36th tooth has to be removed,Or a cam drive for the trigger wheel in a housing if you feel you don't want anyone to see a trigger wheel,but hey it's hot rodding not vintage car restoration And a big ugly GM HEI coil on top of a dissy looks worse than anything on a Ford or Lincoln ,don't you agree?

 

Contact GMC Bubba here on the H.A.M.B. He appears to have the capability of making ANY old distributor better than new. Search his many posts-he's done a bunch.

 

Thanks, just send him a PM.