Identify wide Crab Dist. Cap

B

Black46

Junior Member
Hello, I have a 59AB engine with crab distributer. I was at a swap meet recently and a guy had an inexpensive new 1970's? old stock Crab Cap. It looked like what would replace the one on my car. Yesterday I pulled my old cap off and when I put on them on the bench to compare..the one I bought at swap is quite a bit deeper? Please see photos....I have not seen this deeper design...what is this for?? The shape and everything else looks the same..but I dont think the swap meet deep one will work with my rotor etc. So my question is what is this other style for or what is its application? Thank you in advance for your help. Learning every day!


Could this maybe be a Harman Collins duel point distributer cap? I saw a photo of one of those distributers online and it also looked like a deep design cap..
 

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Black46 said:
Hello, I have a 59AB engine with crab distributer. I was at a swap meet recently and a guy had an inexpensive new 1970's? old stock Crab Cap. It looked like what would replace the one on my car. Yesterday I pulled my old cap off and when I put on them on the bench to compare..the one I bought at swap is quite a bit deeper? Please see photos....I have not seen this deeper design...what is this for?? The shape and everything else looks the same..but I dont think the swap meet deep one will work with my rotor etc. So my question is what is this other style for or what is its application? Thank you in advance for your help. Learning every day!

Could this maybe be a Harman Collins duel point distributer cap? I saw a photo of one of those distributers online and it also looked like a deep design cap..
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Not the H-C conversion cap. They are the same as regular Ford except the area where the coil lead is sticks out on the outside rather than a lump on the inside.

No idear what your swap meet cap fits.
 
I have seen marine SBC distributors with crab caps. The were used because of clearance problems.

I've always thought one would be an interesting conversion for an 8BA.
 
The cap from your car is the '42 Ford/Merc style of cap which is the preferred style of cap by the guys that like to mess with their cars. The swap meet cap could be one of the Magneto variants that was very common in the good ole days. The swap meet cap is not a Harmon Collins which used the '42 style of cap.
 
Pete! I think that is a winner you found. That looks like it...so carb for chrylser marine. Wow. Who would have thought. When I bought the cap at the vintage car swap meet it even had Ford and years listed on it! So I think they were wrong. And being new to the flathead ford crab distributers it looks like the one..and I did not know there was any other application for a crab design until now. Well I only paid $10.00 for the new cap at the swap meet...and it looks like the Marine Crabs are even harder to find..so I guess I'll just buy the correct crap cap at one of the good online sellers websites soon..and sell this marine cap to someone that needs to get their vintage boat on the water! Thanks for the help guys!
 
I believe the swap meet cap would be used on a top mount distributor, but I'm not sure which make (Ford, Chevy, Chrysler, etc. ?) distributor it would be used on.
 
Didn't mean to offend, I was addressing this " but I'm not sure which make (Ford, Chevy, Chrysler, etc. ?) distributor it would be used on."
 
Bob C said:
Didn't mean to offend, I was addressing this " but I'm not sure which make (Ford, Chevy, Chrysler, etc. ?) distributor it would be used on."
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Thanks Bob, yes I did see you identified it above and added a link to it on another site..great.
 
Bob C said:
Didn't mean to offend, I was addressing this " but I'm not sure which make (Ford, Chevy, Chrysler, etc. ?) distributor it would be used on."
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Bob, sorry, my bad. I misunderstood the intent of your post. In retrospect, I'd agree that you nailed it 100% with your identification.
 
tubman said:
I have seen marine SBC distributors with crab caps. The were used because of clearance problems.

I've always thought one would be an interesting conversion for an 8BA.
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Tubman,

I picked up a Mallory crab capped dizzy at Hershey last year for cheap. People say that a flathead cap doesn't work on these, but I've tried a number of flathead crab caps and they all work fine.

I agree, they are interesting for sure.
 
Yep, had a Grey Marine 188 with twin Carter side drafts and a dizzy that used that cap.
Lyman and others used them as tubman said in tight areas where top clearance issues arised. Also saw them on Ford [Interceptor Marine] big bloock engines.
 
Pulled out the box from the basement of my dumb purchase of 6 of these caps. That link shows they go for some bucks, maybe put them on eBay??
 
tubman said:
Accel is singularly responsible for my dislike of the color yellow.
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Exactly! Though when I was about 16 years old, I thought those bright yellow wires were cool.

I also thought the damn red and blue anodizing on "aircraft fittings" was cool as well . . . now I hate all three of them on cars! And now we have bright purple from some of the fuel boys. Argggghhhh

Just give me black . . . everything . . . black . . . then I will be at peace with myself. :D
 
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