I'd say the dist.housing is normally unpainted. They need to make electrical contact.
From photos in the ign systems training manual and service manuals I seriously doubt the dist bodies were left unpainted to rust. The bodies were probably in a fixture of some sort while being painted so the portion of the body where the clamp is positioned and below remained clean for grounding needs. On the distributors which rotated the whole body for the vacuum advance, there was also an added ground wire between the body and clamp or block so those would not have been affected by painting.
Attach file:
(48.74 KB)
(87.83 KB)
(86.05 KB)
This Post was from: https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=206515