Car Problems

I was driving my 65 home the other night and all of a sudden it lost all power. Somehow I limped home and got it safely parked. I opened up the hood the next day to see what was wrong. First off I noticed that the choke pull off linkage had dissappeared and the carb was loose.

Tonight I made me a new pull off linkage and bolted down the carb with some new nuts with a bit of blue loctite.

I cranked her over and she almost did not start......kinda sounded like the timeing was way off but I had reset it when I had installed the Pertronix unit last fall.

I unscrewed the dustributor cap and bumped the engine over with a screwdriver on the starter solinoid. After indexing the rotor to the number one cyllinder a couple times the next time did it the rotor wobbled backwards.

I pulled the distributor and found that the pin holding the gear on the shaft was worn down to just a thin strip of metal......

Guess I was lucky I took twenty years to wear down that far........

So from now on when I do a tune up I am going to pull the distributor to check out the pin.

Just another fifty cent part that can leave you stranded.....

Reply to
Studebaker Kid
Loading thread data ...

DO NOT replace that pin with a hardened ROLL-PIN. It should be a softer SHEAR-PIN, made to shear if there is a problem with the distributor or timing gears. One of my engines had the pin replaced with a hardened pin. A spring on the advance weight broke/cane-off/weakened,,, and it allowed the weight to hit the outer housing. It eventually locked the distibutor while driving- and it spooled the plug-wires up like spaghetti on a fork. It sounded like a big bang when the distibutor locked. It would have sheared the teeth off a fiber timing gear... but I was lucky it didn't damage the (new) aluminum gear.

Check with SASCO to see if those pins are still listed, or just about any Distributor rebuilder wshould have them.

Ray

Reply to
Studeman

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.