Installing 49 Dist. in 48 Ford

4

48fordconv

Senior Member
I'm going to change to a side mounted dist. on my 48 Ford, what do I need ?? I understand someone makes a new timing cover and gear to attach to my 48 cam. Also what water pumps should Ii get? How do belts line up and can you get a front pully with timing mark on it?? I know these are a lot of questions but don't know where to start. I'm justr sick on braking my back to work on front dist. Thanks for any help.
 
It's easy to do, but you need a lot of parts. New 8ba water pumps are easy to find, but you need to block the top water passage on the back of the pump. Next you'll need a crank pulley, they have a timing mark that corresponds to the pointer on the front cover you'll also need to buy. Original cast iron covers are in expensive ($10-20), aluminum is a little more ($50-$100).
And then there is the cam gear extension. Some aftermarket cams (not sure if you have one) have a threaded hole to simply adapt an extension for an 8ba gear. Maybe somebody has more info on that subject.
I don't blame you, the 8ba dist is way easier to deal with. But the cost involved, is it worth it?
 
Why do you want to change? The stock distributor is a very good unit. You need 8RT truck pumps, not passenger car pumps and you still have to plug the bypass hole. If you don't get an aftermarket distributor, you will also need the 49 up carb to activate the advance unit.
 
Steve-Maine said:
I'm going to change to a side mounted dist. on my 48 Ford, what do I need ?? I understand someone makes a new timing cover and gear to attach to my 48 cam. Also what water pumps should Ii get? How do belts line up and can you get a front pully with timing mark on it?? I know these are a lot of questions but don't know where to start. I'm justr sick on braking my back to work on front dist. Thanks for any help.
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Why are you having to work on it so much? Correctly set up, the distributor should not have to have any service for 20-25,000 miles.
 
As just mentioned by flatjack9, the Ford/Holley Loadamatic distributor is all vacuum operated. If you are running a single carb manifold, you will have to use an 8BA type carburetor with the interconnect vacuum line. If you change to an MSD or a modified GM type distributor you can keep the old carburetor but will have to get the distributor set up to work well with the 59A. They almost never do out of the box. There will be no hold down stud on the 59A head for a distributor either. Truck pumps are wide sheave and the fan mounting is different so as was mentioned before, the crank pulley and the press on spiral seal sleeve from an 8BA with the wide belt sheave is in order. You may also have to run the 8BA generator bracket to get the pulleys to align. If you can find an old pick up or truck in the F1 to F6 range you can scavenge the parts off of it. Those cam drive gear stubs just bolt on to the end with the cam gear retention hardware.

The more I think about it the more of a task it becomes. The front mounted distributor sounds better & better with each modification required. I'm having to take it the other way around to make an 8BA type fit in a 29 Model A. The 8BA/8RT parts just stick out there too far.

Kerby
 
To remove that original front distributor: One retainer clip and the cap is off. Then one primary wire and one coil wire. Then two bolts and the distributor is on the bench, ready to be worked on in comfort. Takes maybe two minutes and since it can only go on one way, no worries about the timing. Now, how many hours will be spent converting to the 8BA version?
 
have you guys ever change the ign wires on a 48 or the cap. if you have then you will know what a difference the 41 crab cap is.the 48 cap can bring tears to a glass eye. the 41 cap is a piece of cake. & works just as well stuffing those wires in the 48 cap is like puting 5lbs of xxxx in a 4 pound bag.
 
After talking to a couple of speed shops and my good friend Walt Dupont I have decided to keep the old dist. Will send to Skip and have it checked out and also send my water pumps to him at same time. Thanks for all the help but is too much work and money to change over. Merry Christmas to Everyone.
Steve
 
Steve : I think you made the right decision. No one mentioned that you would have oiling problems unless you changed the cam as the 8BA setup requires lots of oil to the snout of the cam where it contacts the inner surface of the timing cover. The later cams have an oil hole feeding from the front cam bushing to the front face of the cam to handle this situation but the earlier cams ( pre '49) don't. The early setup had gears that thrust the cam back into the block surface and had an oiling passage to lubricate these surfaces while the later setup had gears that thrust the cam forward requiring lubrication at the cam/cover surface. The dual point original distributor ( Mallory design) is a far better unit than the "loadamatic" anyway and with the "crab cap" modification will provide many miles of trouble-free driving. Bruce,
 
Are you saying that there is some sort of hole that feeds oil to the front of the timing gear on an 8BA? I would like to find that hole. On the 8BA I built, I drilled a small hole in the plug that goes in the end of the lifter valley tube behind the cam bearing as suggested in one of the f/h performance building books. That hole could only serve to vent a little oil in behind the cam gear, though. I think that a 59A does the same thing when cold utilizing the pressure relief valve it has towards the front. I'm thinking that anything in front of the cam gear is oiled by lubrication being slung up from the crank gear or front slinger.

But, back to Steve's original thread starter, I am looking at doing the same thing, later distributor on a 59A. My initial measurements tell me that it should work. Using the timing cover offered by Speedway and the bolt on gear adapter, I will put in one of Bubba's Chevy distributors. To keep the original water pumps and have the belt clear the distributor housing, I will route the belt in towards the engine's center with an idler wheel bolted to the base of the alternator's slingshot mount. Why am I doing this? I hope to maximize my flathead's MPG with a better distributor that has both mechanical and vacuum advance.

If it works, I'll post some pics but it might be a while.
 
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