Packard Forum Index » Modification Discussion

I believe they used that same distributor drive system going way back to the prewar Juniors and I suspect though there were changes in the oil pumps the basic method of driving the distributor was the same. In any case, none used a male hex drive such would drive that Mallory unit. There is a lot of interchangeability with the distributors, one thing that no doubt changed between them was the centrifugal advance curve, probably some other minor changes as well.

So what I want to know is if I can go to the hot rod shop and get a new Mallory distributer for the old l8 mill ? I'm running a pertronix pointless rotor and sensor that has been faultless ,replaced the vacuums advance which was fantastically better .i have a suspicion that the bushings / bearings are worn and that I might get some benefit from a new distributer ,some of the products for tractors tend to work nicely with the old pos ground straight 8 s

Ps can I send a photo from my I phone to the site ? I had my 327 rebuilt and the valve seats ground it's an AWSOME site 16 valves didn't fit in the pic!

No you cant get anything like this new. The distributor I found is quite old I would venture a guess that it it was not produced outside of the 50's. As a side not Mallory doesn't seem to have and parts for them as in points, rotors, caps and so on. The one I have if it in fact can fit an L8 Packard seems to be very new on the inside so i would be able to run it till something wears out then it would be a hunt for parts, It does look cool though :D.

Steve, what makes you think your bearings ect are worn? If you are not getting weird noises or erratic timing you are probably fine. Packard L8's have their HP and torque peaks at around 2000 RPM so having excessive wear on the distributor would in my opinion be unlikely though very possible.

A better solution would be to get a dual point breaker conversion plate. You get the advantages a dual point distributor provides (more dwell - more coil saturation) and still use distributor parts that are currently available. I think DynaFlyte might have been one of the dual point breaker conversions sold. These plates would have an application across many marques using a Delco or AutoLite distributor. Look on eBay.

Autolite distributors fitted to some Chrysler products were dual point design. A breaker plate out of one of these distributors might fit a Packard with an AutoLite distributor.

Things to consider...

(o{}o)