Agreeing with Big Kev, I would not recommend re-engineering the system as perfect alignment will be lost. The hub/drum puller can be bought new online for as little as $54.00. I picked up a used one at a flea market, so it shouldn't be hard to find.

Although many will recommend an Optima battery, NAPA sells a conventional lead-acid 6 volt battery rated at 975 cold cranking amps. The NAPA part number is 7212. It fits neatly in the under-seat battery holder. It weighs 48 pounds and measures 9.5 inches high by 6.88 inches wide by 12.5 inches long.

Thanks, 53 Cavalier for your further comments. The missing pointer is certainly an annoyance. I looked into these pointers. I thought maybe I could make one out of a piece of wire that would loop around the timing cover bolt, but looking at pictures of them the actual pointer is offset from where it fastens to the bolt. A further complication is I can't even see or reach the bolt that it fastens to. It looks like at least the radiator would have to come out as well as the auxiliary pusher cooling fan that I installed in front of the radiator and who knows what else, just to put the pointer on. That's a can of worms I'd rather not open if there's another way to do it.

Thanks, Ernie for your suggestions. Maybe I should check other manufacturers to see if they make a colder plug. I've watched Ross's video several times on timing the '51 through '54 eights. Since I have no pointer I used his trick of putting a coin over #1 spark plug hole when cranking the engine. He said to use a penny but I found that that jumps every time the piston is on the upswing. A nickel worked better for me, it would move a little whenever the piston was coming up, but when it was on the compression stroke the nickel would flip up a couple of inches into the air. When this happened the rotor was right at the #1 terminal on the cap. So I'm confident timing is close even without the pointer.

56Clippers, thanks for that question. I don't have an exhaust gas analyzer so this hasn't been done. I can say that I don't see any smoke coming out of the tailpipe.

53Cavalier, thanks again for your questions. What happened was that I hadn't been happy with the idle for several years but it wasn't bad enough to chase after. One day in October it suddenly wouldn't idle at all, stalled the instant I took my foot off the gas pedal. That had to be something in the carb idle circuit so I had the carb overhauled. I put it back on and it would idle but it was about the same as it was before. I decided to go after it. I checked for vacuum leaks that could be causing it to run lean, couldn't find any but the vacuum advance might have a pinhole so I replaced that. The advance Max sent was identical to the old one. I R&Rd the distributor to replace the advance and didn't see any evidence of worn bushings. After this is when I noticed the pinging. I had been thinking of putting a Pertronix system in for a couple of years so I did that, their Ignitor II module and the Flamethrower coil they recommend for the Ignitor II. The engine does start a lot faster than it did before but it still pinged. I contacted their technical support and they said there was no adjustment that could be made, look for a cause outside of their module. That's when I found that backing off the distributor position will stop the pinging but the idle quality and the vacuum gauge reading suffer. As to a problem with the mechanical advance, if the weights were stuck in the full advance position wouldn't the pinging happen all the time and not just when under load? I agree that this most likely is a timing problem and I just need to find that sweet spot where the pinging stops and the idle is smoother.

Thanks, TxGoat for your suggestions. The vacuum gauge didn't detect any vacuum leakage. In checking things over, I found one of the four carb mounting nuts was a half-turn loose but tightening it didn't make a difference. Since I had no idea how old the vacuum advance was and it may have a tiny pinhole in the diaphragm, I bought a rebuilt one from Max (new ones are NLA) and that made no difference. The carburetor was run-tested by the rebuilder in October, so I doubt the problem is carb-related. I also don't think there's a fuel supply or a centrifugal advance problem as it revs up fine and doesn't ping in park, only under load does the condition appear. I always add stabilizer when refueling and the fuel that was in the tank over the winter passed the sniff test so I don't think it was stale. I filled the tank in May so most of the fuel is fresh. The heat riser valve works fine, moves smoothly through its travel. The weight drops as the engine warms up and comes back up when the engine cools.

The plug wires are in their proper order and they all Ohm out within specs, so it's not a wiring problem. As an FYI, there is no timing pointer on this engine so I time it by watching the vacuum gauge. A correctly-timed distributor will have the vacuum advance mechanism level and pointing straight ahead, so in the 9:00 position. I've experimented with the distributor at different positions, the pinging is eliminated at the 7:30-8:00 position. This, however, gives a low vacuum reading at idle and the gauge reads "late ignition timing." I drove it this way in a July 4th parade. I had to drive up a fairly steep hill to get there with three passengers aboard and it didn't ping at all. It went through the parade fine although I shifted into neutral and gave it a little gas to overcome the unstable idle when the parade came to standstills.

I'm toying with the idea of backing off the plug wires one terminal at the distributor cap which would give a 45 degree retard, then reset the distributor back to the 9:00 position to see what happens. Thanks for reading this diatribe.

Thanks, Big Kev for your question. I don't think it's running lean. The carb was professionally overhauled in October by a shop that's been around for 52 years and is very highly regarded. I have richened both screws on the carb, didn't see any difference so I set them back to 2 1/2 turns out.

I haven't brought it up to highway speeds. It starts pinging when starting off slowly up gentle inclines. On steeper inclines I try to get a running start and feather the gas pedal. This stops the pinging for the most part, but not completely. This limits speed to 20 MPH or less. The pinging will stop if I let up on the gas pedal. Thank you for your questions.

I have a 1954 Convertible with the 359 engine and the original aluminum head. I'm using Champion RJ8C spark plugs, which would seem to be the lineal descendants of the J8 listed in the shop manual. I use premium fuel. The pinging happens only when under load, never when revving in park or neutral. I can eliminate the pinging by retarding the distributor several degrees, but the idle is very unsteady, vacuum gauge fluctuates between 13-15 inches until the RPMs go over 600. I have disconnected and plugged the vacuum advance, that made no difference.

I'm wondering if a colder spark plug might help, but it looks like Champion doesn't make a colder plug. The only other plug they recommend is the RJ12YC; the 12 in the part number indicates that it is hotter than the RJ8C. If anyone has solved this problem, I'd appreciate knowing what the solution is. Thanks.