Re: 52 200 distributor question

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2012/1/23 18:28:15

The number you gave is indeed a Delco distributor number; your car should have an AutoLite, IGP 4502-C. Not that it's particularly significant, they are to a large degree interchangeable though not necessarily optimized for your particular engine.

If your car runs decently, it surely doesn't have a 6-cylinder distributor. But just to learn something, remove the distributor cap and count the lobes on the cam that opens the points - with very few exceptions (back into the thirties) a 6-cylinder distributor will have 6 lobes and 8-cylinder will have 8.

I'd suggest staying with the traditional points and condensor, the 6-volt positive ground Pertronix units have a rather mixed history of reliability. They have a few very minor advantages over points/condenser but reliability isn't one of them.

Is it possible to take a 6-cylinder Delco distributor and make an 8-cylinder unit from it, using the 6-cylinder outer case that has the label? Sure, as long as all the correct internal parts are changed. But why? The proper distributor is not in such short supply that anyone would have to go thru those contortions.