Distributor and spark lever problem, incorrect timing?

mack4759

mack4759

Member
We are having problems with the distributor and spark lever on our ‘29. When trying to remove the rotor to get at the points, we accidentally pulled the distributor and shaft out of the engine. When trying to re-seat the distributor, the breaker plate popped out of its grooves. Now that the plate and distributor are back in place, the spark lever rod seems to be out of whack.

With the distributor body installed, the timing will not fully retard as it hits the distributor body, it will also not advance all the way as the lever bottoms out on the plate on the steering column. We are having a hard time figuring out if we installed the distributor incorrectly or the breaker plate. The car runs, but very rough and feels as if it is fighting itself. Anyone have some insight as to where we went wrong? Thanks!
 
Forgive me if I sound blunt. With this many isues with one unit, can you locate a good Model A'er locally to help you & show you what you did wrong? Bill W.
 
I'm having a problem seeing how the physical distributor and plate can go together wrong and work at all. The shaft also can only go in one way due to the tang being offset from center.
 
Spark%20Retard%20Contact.gif

Is this the problem? Loosen both steering column clamps. One is inside the cab and the other is under the hood. Rotate the steering column until the arm functions properly. Tighten the clamps.
 
30ccpickup said:
Is this the problem? Loosen both steering column clamps. One is inside the cab and the other is under the hood. Rotate the steering column until the arm functions properly. Tighten the clamps.
Click to expand...


Nice visual graphic!! I will say that if this person has a 7-tooth steering column, it is going to be difficult to loosen a clamp simply because they are not there on that type column.


Well, lets start by knowing that the distributor housing is correctly seated in the head. If you will look at a side-view between the dist. housing and the head, make sure the indexing notch is down into the hole in the head, and the dist. housing is firmly seated against the surface of the head. If not, get that corrected first. This will ensure the dist. body (dogbone looking piece as seen above in the picture) is correctly positioned.

Next, remove all four spark plugs and insert the crank in the front and slowly turn the engine bringing the pistons of each cylinder up on TDC where you can check how much the ignition points are opening for each cylinder. For the interim, lets just set it where the points open at .020" for each lobe. If you are finding erratic readings, the culprit can be worn dist bushings, a worn plate, or a worn dist. cam. If any or a combination are found, in the perfect world these need to be corrected.

With the points set to fully open to .020", remove the timing pin located in the front cover. Reinstall the dist. body and spark rod, and now push the spark lever inside the to the full upward position. Follow the timing procedure outlined HERE and then restart the engine and see if it is running better.

My personal opinion is the reason the rod does not fit correctly now (providing it did prior to you removing the rotor) is because the distributor is not properly indexed into the head. I will also add that it appears someone did not have the distributor locking stud & locking nut (located in the side of the head) correctly tightened which allowed the distributor to pop out.

.
 
Thanks everyone! Bill, we will just say that getting help from local Model A’ers is a bit difficult right now so we will just have to rule out that option. Hopefully that will change in the near future.

30cc yes, that is exactly the problem we have run into, unfortunately as Brent mentioned, this year did not have that style of steering column.

Brent, the distributor was indeed seated in the head with the indexing notch correctly in its place, and yes the distributor locking stud and nut were not correctly secured. Unbeknownst to us, the nut was snug to the head, but the stud was not making contact with the distributor.

We were able to make some progress and get her running again. Using the method you linked us to as well as using Les Andrew’s guide we found TDC with the timing pin and reinstalled the distributor. Although she sounds pretty good, she still needs some fine tuning of the timing. We have read and re-read both procedures and still cannot make complete sense of a few things.

Even though she is running now we are still stuck on the spark lever dilemma. It still bottoms out on the distributor when retarded and bottoms out on the plate on the steering column while fully advanced. It all went out of whack when the breaker plate came out, still cannot quite figure out what happened. However now that we have had it apart we are thinking that it might not have ever had the full range of motion it should have had, it is just that now it is worse. According to the 'abarnyard' instructions ‘some bending’ might be necessary. We decided to bend the ball on the head of the spark advance lever at the base of the steering column. This helped get us more range, but not completely there. However looking at the adjuster plate on the steering column it appears that there are two screws, one on each side of the plate. We are guessing that this is for making adjustments? We ran out of working light and will attempt it tomorrow, but if we can adjust the plate a bit we might get the remaining 1/4"-½" movement we need.
 
One of the steps we were confused about in Les Andrew’s guide is step #10 on page 2-18 of 'Mechanics Handbook Vol 1'.

“Replace the rotor on the cam and turn it until the rotor arm is opposite No. 1 contact point in the distributor body. (This identifies the correct cam lobe for timing.)”

This does not make any sense to us, as the opposite contact point of No. 1 would No. 3, correct? Wouldn’t this then reverse the timing by 180°? Any insight would be great! Thanks!
 
Don't remove the 2 screws at the top of the steering column. They only hold the top bushing in place for the steering shaft and have no adjustment.
 
Just guessing, but maybe the rod from column to distributor is a repop and it is a little to long. I'll measure some of mine and post a measurement later
 
mack4759 said:
One of the steps we were confused about in Les Andrew’s guide is step #10 on page 2-18 of 'Mechanics Handbook Vol 1'.

“Replace the rotor on the cam and turn it until the rotor arm is opposite No. 1 contact point in the distributor body. (This identifies the correct cam lobe for timing.)”

This does not make any sense to us, as the opposite contact point of No. 1 would No. 3, correct? Wouldn’t this then reverse the timing by 180°? Any insight would be great! Thanks!
Click to expand...

That is confusing when Les says opposite No. 1..
I thought the same thing when i timed mine but as Fordgarage says, Its adjacent to or pointing to No.1 not facing the opposite way.
 
Now you got me confused (not hard to do these days),

"When trying to remove the rotor to get at the points, we accidentally pulled the distributor and shaft out of the engine...."

I ASSumed that this meant the engine was running and you were just doing a tune up.

Was it working at all before you had the dist lift off?
 
"This does not make any sense to us, as the opposite contact point of No. 1 would No. 3, correct? "

If it's 12:00 are both hands oposite the number 12?
 
Tom Wesenberg said:
Don't remove the 2 screws at the top of the steering column. They only hold the top bushing in place for the steering shaft and have no adjustment.
Click to expand...

Hmm….that is really too bad, thought that was going to be our answer. :(

We do not know much history of the car so the rod could very well be a repop. It measures 17 1/8”.

Mike, the car had been running fine a couple weeks ago, but started to act up on us and got to the point where it would not start. So we were tying to tune it up when this happened, we still have a lot of learning to do.
 
zzlegend said:
That is confusing when Les says opposite No. 1..
I thought the same thing when i timed mine but as Fordgarage says, Its adjacent to or pointing to No.1 not facing the opposite way.
Click to expand...

That is good, because it would not even turn over with the rotor opposite of No. 1. Now we know why, lol! Thanks
 
yeah, last night i was trying to start my AA for the first time. set the timing to the best that i could figure, and got nothing. i had the rotor terminal pointed at #3 (er, cylinder 4); as all the instructions lead people to believe. i'll try turning it around and maybe it'll start then!

someone knowledgeable should really make a "for dummies" video on the process of setting the timing; including point gaps at what point on the rotor and so on... and actually show what they're doing instead of just talking about it. there is a les andrews video on timing on youtube, but even though he's going through a lot of things, he's only got a couple pictures and not an actual demonstration. the only videos i've found are by people who have already set the timing and aren't taking anything apart or adjusting things.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top