Recent content by Richard in Florida

Are you driving between central Florida and New England in the next few months or so? I have a package of stuff I want to give Ol' Ron in Vermont that probably wouldn't survive USPS or UPS. Dropping it off for me will make Ol' Ron very happy and will give you an opportunity to meet a formidable...

In my '53 Victoria, I used an Astro Van rear section because it put the shifter in just the right place. The S10 put it too far forward, and the Mustang put it under the edge of the front seat. I used a Ford input shaft and a 2.95 gear set with a 0.7 5th gear. In conjunction with a machined...

In the SBChevy conversion, rotor phasing, the relation of the rotor blade to the plug post inside the cap, is determined by the position of the "breaker plate" inside the distributor. If you're running only mechanical advance, you can tweak the position of the plate by "slotting" the hold down...

Yes, it does. And thanks for the plug. Always nice. On the last few I did I used a 3-48 set screw instead of a 4-40. Leaves more meat around the hole.

Don't buy Chinese junk from anyone. Call Mike Casella at Then & Now Automotive at 781-335-8860. Or www.then-now.com. Mike rebuilt a couple of pumps for me and they looked like jewelry. They worked great and the price was also excellent.

That was because I used parts of two "bodies" to make the stem long enough to clear the water elbow. I removed the HEI module and used it strictly as a magnetic trigger for my Crane CDI ignition. I also removed the on-board coil so I could use the coil I wanted to use. I have some pictures...

When I rebuilt my first flathead back in the Mesozoic era, I forgot to file the ends of the rings to provide clearance when they are compressed when the pistons are installed. It took herculean force to turn the engine over but I actually got it started. I drove about four miles before the...

Thanks for the kind words, Charlie. All through the design and building of my car I enjoyed sharing everything I learned or dreamed up that could help the next guy: "aluma-peas," setscrew advance range adjustment, plug wire looms, four-barrel tuning, my "road rig," my homemade distributor...

Thanks for the flowers, Jim. I appreciated your mentoring and patience.

Here's a paper I wrote a few years back about Chevy conversions. I think it might shed some more light.

The most commonly adapted vacuum canister is from ACCEL but I think the same way-offshore factory packages the same canister for Crane and a few others but there's only one canister. Vacuum canisters do only one thing: pull on the breaker plate or magnet/pickup coil inside the distributor...

Actually, this is a problem with the Chinese ACCEL vacuum canisters. It's easily fixed by elongating the canister mounting holes. Oh, and we're calling Ol' Ron's big cap Igor.

The upper pointer indicates mechanical advance, and the lower pointer reads vacuum advance. The fixture is good for close ballparking, but final settings should be made on a distributor machine if at all possible.

Sparky’s Carburetor Service 3149 North 78th Street Milwaukee Wisconsin 53222 Sparky Kalkoff 414-447-7500 Great guy, excellent work.

Converted GM distributors, both the early points version and the "big cap" HEI version, are very easy to adjust, even on the engine. The only thing you have to do to start adjusting is remove the cap and rotor. The springs and weights are right on top. However, adjusting vacuum advance -- which...