Helmet Distributor Rebuild

Lawrie said:
and you need to set the points with the assembly installed in the housing, coil on and adjustment screw tightened
Lawrie
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Thanks. I see now why all this matters. After watching the great vid on the Sun tester, I'm even more motivated to see if I can get my Allen one working.
 
Lawrie said:
and you need to set the points with the assembly installed in the housing, coil on and adjustment screw tightened
Lawrie
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Lawrie, very important point. Once all is assembled with the timing plate screw tightened and the coil mounted and tightened down then the points plate will move slightly and upset the contacts gap. The points gap is done last and usually done on the bench timing fixture or on a SUN machine for a running test. Otherwise just set both sets at .015"and it will run Ok. Access is through each side cap opening before caps and leads are fitted. I suggest that you find a bench timing fixture to set up the distributor before fitting it to the car. If you dont do it that way then your contacts can end up being set to what knows gap. Also tighten down the vacuum brake lock nut with about three threads showing on the bolt for a starting position. Final adjustments can be done by driving the car. Regards, Kevin.
 
Steve,
Regarding post #15 did you check point alignment ? This is the time to make sure the contacts close square. With the breaker plate fully assembled aligning the fixed arm to the movable arm is easily done. In your post #21 it's not a bad idea to check the wear between the rotor shaft and bushings.....usually the small front bushing is OK....I find however the big rear bushing is usually worn excessively as is the companion diameter on the shaft. Running fit seems to work well at .001 between the shaft and bushings.
A great presentation !
Thanks,
Charlie ny
 
Thanks again for all the pointers. I don’t think I’ve set points since the mid 80’s when I had a 71 Skylark, and 78 Firebird. Lol! I was wondering about that. They seemed to line up ok before I installed it into the hsg. The PS side looks good, but the drivers side looks to be slightly out alignment (movable side maybe a couple thou too high), but worse it doesn’t look the points are fully closed on the DS.
On the issue of the shaft, both this shaft and my orig one fit nicely with no discernable wear, but a thou is pretty hard to “feel”.

Can’t upload pics again, but will try later.
 
So after cleaning up the hardware, I disassembled the distributor. I can confirm that the DS points were not closing all the way. Just goes to show how things move after installation. I reset things again, and all seems fine, but again that is before installation into the housing.
I also forgot to apply some lube to the cam. I should have remembered to do so, as the original from my crab distributor was badly worn. I have some Valvoline Special Moly EP which I use on the knuckles of my truck. I'm hoping the moly will help things stay put. I saw some Lucas Red "Slip n Slide"? this morning at the auto parts store, and thought it would be good to have some, but never purchased it. Only if I had known then I could have used it for perhaps this application. I also put a bit of the moly grease on the shaft bearing surfaces and on the interface surface of the inner and outer housing at the rear to help dissassembly in the future.
The alignment of the points look good, and I'll recheck when it is time to run the engine. Unfortunately, I'm having storage issues on my iPad, and I deleted all those pics, but here is a pic of the gaskets.
 

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Good job Ziggster . . . yah did it! Thanks for putting this journey together - may help somebody else who is heading down the path.
 
With the coil off and inner caps on, you can see how close the rotor contacts are to the cap contacts and if they align properly. There is a thin washer to put at one end of the rotor to remove end play and to center the contacts. I use a couple of wraps of good electrical tape (Scotch 33) under the rotor, each wrap of tape is good for 1,000V shrink tube is no where near this electrical rating.
 
Ziggster,

Many thanks for the thread. I'm just about to embark on this work and there are many useful tips here.

Sending it out for a rebuild is an expensive and time consuming exercise from down under!!!
 
You’re welcome. Not that I’m any expert, but if you have any questions feel free to send a PM. I feel it is very important to share as much as we know.
 
Some years ago I think in Shellys time . I posted that I got stoped on the road with a orignial 34 v8 it would not pull up a hill, badly missing engine ,
I only had a pair of pliers and a screw driver and tape I managed to get the Distributor of I had worked on it prior and figgerd it had to be the roter shorting through to the shaft ,I had a brain wave I thought if I wrapped this tape around the shaft I might get it to work ,It did and i got home no problem ,you can see the wrapped shaft in the left of the picture . ,Ted

PS Good post by Ziggser
 

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How do you file the inner distributor cap contacts so they have the proper gap from the rotor? I assume its done through the opening where the coil mounts. But I haven't taken it apart yet.
 
How did you remove the vacuum brake adjustment screw? It is preened to a washer, the washer covers the end of the plunger spring. Adjust by hand, screw the adjustment screw out all the way out then inward until it contacts the spring continue 1 to 1-1/2 turn and lock in place with the lock nut. A small amount of pressure on the advance plate will make the point timing steady.

Use just a drop of silicone oil on the two bearings, they should rotate smoothly and easy, so should the weights. Rotate the shaft and hold the plate watch the bearings, they should go to all the extreams of the holes in the plate.
 
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Old VW Guy said:
So where the heck did you get the fine looking ignition coil ? They seem to be as rare as hens teeth !!
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Sorry, it’s been a while since I worked on it. I think I got some parts from 3rd Gen Auto at the time. I’d have to go back through the thread, but I’m sure I replaced the rotor, “caps”, covers, and maybe even the boots.
 
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