I just thought to share my experience with you. My car has the special Swiss low emissions specification (without catalytic converter, since unleaded fuel was not available here in 1984). The distributor provides therefore an additional delayed ignition curve when the throttle is closed. This is simply achieved with a second impulse pick-up (2 times #1 in picture) with a 4° ignition delay. A changeover micro switch actuated by the throttle lever system is responsible for switching from delayed to normal ignition timing. When I was studying the systems of my car I noticed that this micro switch was set not to operate! I knew it was a part of the ignition system but I did not know exactly how it was supposed to work. After setting it correctly, the engine idle was low and unstable. Hence I decided to have a closer look at the distributor which is sitting in the most inaccessible corner of the engine compartment. At first, I took the cap off and noticed that the carbon brush in the center was stuck. When trying to get it lose it just moved more into the cap. Therefore I machined it out. Surprise! Unlike in the manual's figure 3, this was not a spring loaded but a fixed brush. I replaced it by a spring loaded one out of a scrap Ford distributor cap. Now I took the complete distributor out of the car and tried to understand how it worked with the two impulse pick-ups and the centrifugal advance. Surprise No. 2! The centrifugal advance was stuck completely by corrosion and hardened grease. The wick underneath the rotary arm in the shaft center was absolutely dry. Looks like it was never oiled since the car has left the factory. The distributor did therefore get a complete overhaul including new bearings and seals. The timing was set to factory specifications and the engine has now a smooth idle and a better fuel economy thanks to the working ignition advance. It probably also has better performance which is difficult to check on our speed limited roads. Lesson learned: regardless of the poor access, the distributor needs some drops of fine oil from time to time to keep it in good shape. Because a number of ignition cables had interrupted leads, the complete set of cables has been renewed at the same time. I expect the next compulsory emissions test to show better results also. Peter http://homepage.hispeed.ch/Cavalli/ Image Unavailable, Please Login
Peter Thanks for your posting. I bet it took some bravery to remove the distributor. You have given me one task for my winter 'to do' list. If I understand the diagram correctly, if I remove the cap and rotor, is the wick oiled down the center shaft of the distributor? Will this oil the advance springs and weights? Ken
Hi Ken, Unfortunately the oil applied to the wick (yes it is in the shaft center underneath the rotor and a metal shim) will not penetrate down to the weight pivots and the spring bushes. By turning the rotor you can feel if the advance mechanism is stuck or not. But don't be misled by the fact that that the spiral pinion of the drive gear can move axially on the shaft if you turn in rotation direction which allows to turn the rotor some 15 to 20 degrees without actuating the advance mechanism! The advance is only the spring- loaded travel at the end of the turn which must reverse easily when released. If it is not moving freely I strongly recomment to take the distributor out and take it apart. Regards Peter
I was tired of cleaning the muck out of the distributor. Whenever the car was exposed to water, some would find its way into the distributor and form a greenish slime that would stop the weights from moving. To get around this I made a solid block of aluminum to replace the weights that would lock the rotor and I feed the pickup into a MegaSquirt that performs the advance electronically. Much better!
Peter My advance is working fine. After adjusting the idle advance I got exactly 30 degrees advance just as it came up to 5000 RPM. Advance was smooth over the range. Exciting laying under the car taking those readings! I was just planning some preventative maintenance. Ken
Hi Ken, I'm glad to hear that your advance is working fine. Hope you keep it working by adding a few drops of oil to the wick now and then. Checking with the strobe, as you did is of course an easy way for checking the proper function provided one can lift the car high enough and there is a second person to adjust the engine speed. Peter
