Can't find thread on distributor timing

F

Flathead Youngin'

Member
There are a lot of threads on the sun machine, KR Wilson fixtures, etc. I've tried a lot of searching with various combinations of words...

There was one in particular that had some pics from a fella that showed where he had built his own timing fixture.

Point me in a direction, please, if you can recall the thread...
 
I've been searching as well. If you are talking about Bruce Lancaster's protractor method, I haven't found the actual thread either. Plenty of references to it, but no actual thread.
 
Very interesting but I still can't find it. It was a thread about timing fixtures/sun machines and a fella just posted some pics of his homebrew version. He really didn't give any details except, and I searched a lot of combos of these words, "I couldn't find one for years so I just built one myself." It was quite a few years ago. I started to send the fella a PM but got side tracked and lost the open window on my desktop. I can't recall the username...
 
I made a crude one a couple years ago for the heck of it and gave it to a friend.
I used a degree wheel that mounted to the housing and a home made needle onto a flathead adapter, light bulb some wire and a 9V battery.
I have pondered having the KRW fixture reproduced in a affordable form..

If you make one just remember the V-8's fire on 45 degrees, and these dual point distributors have ten degrees of overlap, thus you would strive for 22.5 degrees each side and 35 total. If you make one you will need to drill a hole for a pin or make a mark for the initial timing set mark. Likely you will have to borrow a KRW fixture to make that mark accurate.
 
If you have a sun machine, then I get this post.


If not, just send it to Bubba. You can send two also (I did just encase, did the same with skip, and it's on a shelf). It's really reasonable and checked out by a pro. As they say a smart man knows his limitations. if the time comes when it's not offered I'll have to do it... but I have one on the shelf, and really unless I live to 190 i'm good.


.
 
Different strokes for different folks. I have nothing against Bubba and others who rebuild them. It is a lot of work, and expensive speciality equipment is required to do a 100% inspection. For me it is a journey of discovery, and by researching past threads here, HAMB, and elsewhere, many seem to have had questions as to the operation of this unique device over the last twenty years. At the moment, I still plan on trying to rebuild mine, and we'll see if it works to my satisfaction, if not, then I'll send it out, or buy one that has already been done.
 
Flathead Youngin' said:
There are a lot of threads on the sun machine, KR Wilson fixtures, etc. I've tried a lot of searching with various combinations of words...

There was one in particular that had some pics from a fella that showed where he had built his own timing fixture.

Point me in a direction, please, if you can recall the thread...
Click to expand...
I think you are looking for "FlatHeadTed" on the "Current" thread running on "Testing Helmet on a Sun Machine".
 
Sometimes if you look hard, you may find a Sun machine that you can fix up.


SunMachDirty.JPG
 
"They did require special adapters for some types when running them on the Sun machines."

Rotor, you are correct. Here's the Apple Peeler Adapter.

sunapple.jpg
 
Why is timing an issue? I just set up the points, make sure the advance is working and set the tab on zero on the Sun 504 machine. After installation, I advance it all the way on the tab and listen for pinging which I have never heard. If I hear it, I would just throw some premium in the mix rather than retard it. Maybe I am tone deaf to it? Runs great on either distributor I have.
 
I would like to see some more information on the unit "Lawrie" built that "38bill" mentioned above.
 
DistTesterLawrie.jpg

Some beautiful work by Lawrie. Not sure if I can see a strobe display. That's pretty tricky. If you plan to try to build your own, first figure out how to make a good sharp strobe when the points OPEN.


SunMachrestore1.jpg

This is a partial restore on the Sun that I found behind a shop ... picture in the above post. If you get this far, you have it made ... the tach and dwell can easily be substituted. The strobe, main power supply, and the rotating parts are what you really want to salvage from one in poor shape.
 
Hoop,
I have three suns but this 500 that came from mark at paramont is the one I primarily use. It has the LED flash tube which I really like.

208c239fd8a7eb648f60abd1ad11e61e.jpg
e4b894c228445d908c8eb83e9eb3d5b1.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Michael, that LED conversion is a pretty good piece of work. More complicated than one would think. I have spare flash tubes or would have converted.
 
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