New Rotor
- Thread starter hdmike
- Start date
James Rogers
Well-known member
You don't remove any material. The end of the brass is bent up or down to increase or decrease the air gap.
BudP
Senior Member
When I used a new distributor body and a new rotor, I found that the contacts inside the body were uneven distances from the rotor. I filed each long contact down to the length of the shortest. I also filed a little off the end of the rotor. I used a feeler gauge to insure a uniform gap between the end of the rotor and the contact. I filed each until I had a uniform gap of .025 between the end of the rotor and each contact.
Mitch//pa
BANNED
BUd P has it right file each contact to get your gap. if you try and bend the rotor contact it will break off the plastic rotor most of the time. as long as your not rubbing the dist body contacts you should be good. how often did we set the gap on later points style cars? do you remember a spec for those later cars? i dont.
probably the most important thing is to have no play in the distributor shaft which causes variable point gap and rotor contact gap
probably the most important thing is to have no play in the distributor shaft which causes variable point gap and rotor contact gap
BILL WILLIAMSON
Well-known member
Only with X-RAY vision, could we check a "modern" cap
Anyone remember having one HIT? I don't.Bill W.
Mitch//pa
BANNED
Only with X-RAY vision, could we check a "modern" cap
Bill W.
EXACTLY my point
Kurt in NJ
Well-known member
It is something I never looked at on my car, it runs fine, but I took a look, found one contact almost touching, opposite side about .025, found the locating pin holding th cap a little off dist base, filed the notch, now the cap sits square, still some gap variation, car still runs the same , found a cap that has same gaps, car still runs the same, put original cap back on, car still runs the same--- my conclusion-- it doesn't matter that the gaps are somewhat different if there are no other problems--- perhaps a large gap helps if you have rich mixture plug fowling problems
The reason I was asking i bought a new rotor from Snyders and it was to long and hit the body and broke the rotor. I don't remember years ago when I had a two door sedan worrying much about the rotor hitting the body. I just put it on and was good to go. But, that was over 30 years ago.
Tom Wesenberg
Well-known member
I wonder if the body contacts were too long. I've seen some repro bodies that fit loose on the distributor and can shift around. The bodies I bought from Bratton's, Snyder's, and Little Dearborn all fit nice and snug.
mshmodela
Well-known member
Funny I was checking my rotor gap a few weeks ago --it was a whopping 0.061" I replaced the body with a new one (the old contacts had some major signs of arching). I happen to be using a clear distributor top and the difference in the new body resulted with a a gap of 0.035" on each as opposed to the 0.061" is that the spark at the contacts is now much less. Given gap is resistance, more gap, more resistance, I would think more of the coil's energy is now going to the plugs and maybe a larger spark there... My car idles smoother, less little odd random miss... (for what this newbie has observed).
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Mike V. Florida
Well-known member
When I buy parts for spares I test fit them on my car first. I have found bodies that the "original" rotor hits and I have found rotors that have hit "original' bodies.
I make the adjustments to the new part installed.
kenparker
Well-known member
No offense meant Kurt, but "It does matter". As msh said "the more gap the more resistance". If one wants their cars engine to fire and run smoothly all four plugs should fire evenly. To do so requires the same voltage to each plug in order to get he same explosion in each cylinder.
... and I hope I got my grammar right. I am to lazy to do much proofreading.
... and I hope I got my grammar right. I am to lazy to do much proofreading.