tuneing my 41'

1sicpig

1sicpig

Junior Member
:confused: I'm looking for help tuning my 41' ford, anyone in the Apple Valley, Victor Ville, Lucern, Hesperia, CA. area I can get with for some schooling on the in's and out's of flat-head workings
 
You better believe it . Got to come out,its all got to come apart to change it and points,clean old grease out of it,check advance wts for broken leaves. Not the job for a newbi OMO. ken ct. Theres a lot of things a newbi would not know to look for or do in there and lots of tricks in there.
 
ken ct said:
You better believe it . Got to come out,its all got to come apart to change it and points,clean old grease out of it,check advance wts for broken leaves. Not the job for a newbi OMO. ken ct. Theres a lot of things a newbi would not know to look for or do in there and lots of tricks in there.
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1sicpig, I hope you won't be discouraged by Ken's condescension, even he was a "Newbi" once too and had to learn all that he now knows somehow from someone or something. We are here to help you, not ridicule you so let those of us who want to help do so. I would think that you have some mechanical intuition or would not have taken on a classic automobile. With that and a little direction from some of us with a bit of experience you'll do fine. I wish I could help but I have a '47 that has a very different distributor than you probably have in your '41 but I can offer this diagram of what should be yours so that you can see how it all comes apart and fits back together. Hopefully someone with experience with your distributor can walk you through tuning it up.

DistributorDiagramsmall.jpg
 
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Step 1. Remove 3 bolts holding distributor to block and pull out. Do NOT crank engine when distributor is out of the block. Notice that the tongue on the back of the distributor fits into and is driven by a slot in the cam. The slot is off-center so that the distributor's tongue can only be re-installed with the tongue in the proper position.

Step 2. Place the distributor's tongue into one side of a vice and then gently tap around the backside of the aluminum housing with a wooden or plastic mallet. You should start to see the whole innards held by the tongue in the vice start to come out the the aluminum housing. Keep tapping until it all comes out. You may need to use a bit of penetrating oil or ATF/acetone mix to loosen things up.

Step 3. From here on out, it's best to follow directions for changing points, rotor etc from the books/diagram Henry gave above or ask more questions after you've looked the innards over. It's really not that much different from more modern point distributors and you may be able to see what's going on just by inspection.


Jack E/NJ
 
Good inst from Jack,but even if you dont turn mtr. over ,you will most likely upset the position of the tounge of the dist[same as moving the engine],and before you even clamp it in the vice.You first have to remove the timing plate and screw, thenunscrew the big nut of the vacume plunger and remove the spring and the plunger or the guts wont come out.Then you can remove the rotor,careful there maybe a shim washeron the front end of shaft.Then remove the big cir-clip that holds point plate in and remove the plate,then you can break down the shaft and weights theres 2 small cir-clips to remove and the lower plate[disc] and the weights will come apart.now you can check the rear bushing and front bushing for sloppy fit ,renew if so. You will need an adjust bushing reamer on the rear one as it collapses as you drive it in. Clear as mud right thats only the beginning of rebuilding it. more to come later. ken ct. Be my guest.
 
From just looking at the diagram I posted it looks like before you can remove the distributor you should slide the two bails (12144 in diagram) that hold the two distributor caps off so that the caps (12105) can come off so you don't have to unplug all of the spark plugs. If that's not so hopefully one of the others will say different.

Also, as the others said, you might want to mark the position of the connection on the back of the distributor that meshes with the end of the cam shaft before messing with it so that you can get it back into the same postition to get it to mesh again when you put it back in. (That part's the same as my later distributor.)
 
Thank you all, I have a better idea of what I'm getting in to, and how to start it. I also got a Ford 1932 - 1941 Mercury shop manual service handbook. I will asking more questions I am sure before I'm done with this project.
 
I'm just inserting some numbers from the diagram into Ken's instructions so you'll know what he's talking about.

You first have to remove the timing plate (12174) and screw (350101-S), then unscrew the big nut of the vacume plunger (12227) and remove the spring (12225) and the plunger (12220) or the guts wont come out.Then you can remove the rotor (12201), careful there maybe a shim washer on the front end of shaft (12175).Then remove the big cir-clip that holds point plate in (12146) and remove the plate (12151),then you can break down the shaft and weights (12176) theres 2 small cir-clips (12207 & 12177) to remove and the lower plate[disc] (12185) and the weights (12176) will come apart. now you can check the rear bushing (12132) and front bushing (12120) for sloppy fit ,renew if so.
 
Old Henry>>>From just looking at the diagram I posted it looks like before you can remove the distributor you should slide the two bails (12144 in diagram) that hold the two distributor caps off so that the caps (12105) can come off so you don't have to unplug all of the spark plugs. If that's not so hopefully one of the others will say different.>>>

You are correct, Henry! When you're actually looking at the real thing rather than a diagram, a lot of this stuff becomes a lot more obvious.

Thanks, Ken, for some of the other important details in getting the guts out!!

Jack E/NJ
 
hi, call this # 941-505-9085 Skip Haney, i sent mine to him he cleans it, sets the dwell on the points, changes the rotor if needed, and sets the timeing on i believe a Sun machine. and very resonable. let someone that does it all the time do it. its worth it. and when i took mine off, i took a cornor edge of a file an put a mark on the tounge of the dist. on one side, not a deep one just so you can see it, and took a photo of it so it went back just the way it came off. JAN.
 
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I assumed he could figure out that the bails had to be pulled down and caps pulled out to remove it. Another thing he should remove the inner caps and file or clean the contacts or replace the inner caps with new ones if that bad.Also the points must be set with the coil screwed in place.Theres a lot to do on these things and thats only the 1/2 of them.Like i said send it out. ken ct.
 
ken>>>Theres a lot to do on these things and thats only the 1/2 of them.Like i said send it out.>>>

Send it out? Gee, that doesn't sound like much fun. 8^)

Jack E/NJ
 
ken ct said:
Theres a lot to do on these things and thats only the 1/2 of them.Like i said send it out. ken ct.
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This piece of equipment is like many on these old Fords - like a Chinese puzzel that's a blast to figure out how to take it a part, improve it, and put it back together. At least I enjoy that challenge. I guess if a person did it 100 times it wouldn't be near as fun and he'd rather not bother any more. But the first time - wow - what a blast!:p

Have fun!

(My personal favorite was my clock. Now that was a challenge but that much more fun.):)
 
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