Distributor Shaft “Play” – what’s acceptable?

[eastsidebimmer]

::::

Hello, I picked up a nice looking used vacuum advance distributor that I’d like to swap out for my PO supplied 008 tii unit with mechanical advance. [i’m running a stock setup w/a 32/36, but I don’t think the tii distributor is really necessary.]

Question: the distributor has about a 1/16” or so of vertical up and down movement. Is this a sign of impending doom, is this OK or should I look for another spare? I do have a second really cruddy one in the “untested parts” bin that has no visible movement. – Thoughts?

Thanks,

Ben

[jgerry2002]

Up and down is not as bad as side to side. Are you running points or electric ignition?

For the most part, electronic ignitions are not be as picky with a bit of wobble.

[eastsidebimmer]

(nt)

[SteveJ]

Up/down (Axial) play of that extent should be fine. You figure as it rotates, the gears will pull it down into place.

Side to side (radial) play can give you fits in trying to tune the car. Every once in a while it will miss. And if you are trying to smog check the car this is bad. One miss means no spark/no combustion/raw fuel being pushed through the exhaust. That means high HCs and a failure by the referee station that you waited three weeks to get an appointment at.

Sorry. that was my story years ago.

[Mike Self]

are still available from Bosch. I successfully replaced those on my dizzy some years ago by making a simple puller out of a long bolt and a ground down washer or two...

mike

[2002Targa]

Before you put it in, take it apart, clean the crap out of it and lube it up good. It's really simple to take apart (just down to the advance plates) and you would be surprised at the 30yr amounts of goo in there.

TK

[AlanM]

You will find that you can shim the shaft near the drive cog to reduce play up and down. Use the shims from your old distributor.