Packard Forum Index » General

I noticed there was some play when I wiggled the rotor. Is this normal?

play in rotor

Also I can only manually advance/retard the timing so much because I have the auto lite distributor

limited advance

The "play" shown in your video appears almost certainly to be the normal movement caused by the spreading of the centrifugal advance weights against their springs. If in doubt, remove the breaker plate and take a look.

But regardless, do check carefully to make sure there is no sloppiness in the fit of the rotor to the shaft.

Quote:

Ok I will check on that because it doesn’t feel “springy” like the other distributors I’ve dealt with, if fact I didn’t even realize it had centrifugal advance, I just assumed it was all vacuum as this is the e oldest car I’ve worked on.

Any ideas on what might be causing my spark issue previously mentioned?

After looking at pictures of your distributor I would give all the parts a good cleaning. Appears to be a lot of scum or dirt . Clean electrical parts make for better performance and less chance of bad connections. I Have found that some of rotors being sold now are loose fitting on shaft. Which leads to touching the individual contacts for each wire lead. Shim the inside of rotor with piece of paper till rotor is tight on shaft

Moody, just FYI centrifugal spark advance dates back to the earliest years of the motorcar. I believe Packard patented and was using centrifugal advance by 1900 or 1901.

Vacuum advance came much later, the senior 1934 Packards still only employed centrifugal advance.

Your oil pump needs to be turned one tooth CCW as viewed from the distributor side.

Ross offers the solution to timing the oil pump so the distributor rotor will be in the factory built position. Actually, rotor position for No. 1 can be in any one of the distributor cap's terminals and function, using correct firing order of course. However, this may lead to the vacuum chamber being in a position that may interfere with engine block or oil fill tube. A one tooth adjustment either way to orient the rotor so it is in the factory position is probably not necessary. Still, better to have it oriented correctly.

Quote:
Ok I will plan on fixing that today if I can.
I had a sneaking suspicion that was the problem because that was the only part of the ignition timing I didn’t personally do and I imagine it can be pretty easy to mess up.

I am happy to report that after reinstalling the oil pump in the correct position and advancing the distributor as far as it will allow; I now get a spark on cylinder one at exactly 6 degrees :)
I also cleaned up my distributor and have new points, condenser, and rotor on the way!

Thank you guys for your invaluable help once again.! I should now be able to start the break in process.
Well after I get my radiator re-cored…

I believe the dot on the oil pump shaft goes down on the eights and up on the sixes, slot is vertical. Dell