Distributor thrust washer location

R

Richard Lorenz

Senior Member
The diagrams in both the Snyders and Brattons catalogs show that this washer should be located at the bottom of the distributor just above the sleeve. The distributor that I am restoring shows wear at the top where the upper shaft is supported. It seems to me that because of gravity, it would be smart to locate the 0.015-inch thick metal thrust washer (Snyder's A-12180) at the top instead of at the bottom. With my parts, there is not enough space to have thrust washers at both the top and bottom.

Considering both gravity and the wear at the top of my distributor, I am going to put the steel thrust washer at the top. This will locate the cam at the correct height. Any comments?
 
Richard Lorenz said:
The diagrams in both the Snyders and Brattons catalogs show that this washer should be located at the bottom of the distributor just above the sleeve. The distributor that I am restoring shows wear at the top where the upper shaft is supported. It seems to me that because of gravity, it would be smart to locate the 0.015-inch thick metal thrust washer (Snyder's A-12180) at the top instead of at the bottom. With my parts, there is not enough space to have thrust washers at both the top and bottom.

Considering both gravity and the wear at the top of my distributor, I am going to put the steel thrust washer at the top. This will locate the cam at the correct height. Any comments?
Click to expand...

one goes below the cam.one goes above the sleeve
 
Steel one goes at the top and a fiber one at the bottom to take up space if needed. You might need to fit the bottom one if one is used. A few 1000th of an inch up or down will not make a big difference in the location of the cam. The rotor has a spring contact and will still make contact with the button on the cap. The lobes on the cam are wider then the piece on the points.
 
Temporally install the top plate, points, rotor and housing. Look at the rotor alignment with the contacts on the housing. Most of the time the rotor will be too low from the housing contacts, also the rubbing block will be at the top of the cam. Add washers at the top until the rubbing block is centered on the cam, and the rotor is centered with the contacts on the housing. Most of the time you will need to put both washers on top, with the metal washer on top of the fiber washer. Then if the bottom sleeve is too tight, machine off the top of the sleeve until you have .005" or .010" end play.
 
By time you set the correct body contact gap to rotor it's going to be high or low. The spark will jump from point A to B in any case. The spark like to jump from the sharp edge not the flat anyway.
 
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