Re: 1949 Auto-lite Dist. Vac. Advance

Posted by Mike On 2011/7/17 10:30:03

that plate is awful new looking, i be it is the right dist and the plate is aftermarket with the wrong numbers.

That looks like my delco for sure, only the vacuum diaphragm arm shouldn't overlap the part with the ticks on the body it rides over. The screw with the pointer should be going through the arm at the end, you would accomplish that by rotating the dist away from the diaphragm some and then assembling. A good estimate is that the screw goes through the end of the vacuum arm, and then adjust so that the pointer is in the center of the gauge marks scribed on the part connected to the dist body. Every time i've done that, timing has been damn close.

Then when in the car and doing timing, loosen the screw and move rotate the dist along the gauge scribe marks and then tighten that screw again...the vacuum motor is what holds the dist in time, not the bolts on the base like most distributors. Without that vacuum can hooked up, it should be able to rotate rather freely.