Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Season Six, episode 32:

Last night I get a phone call from Steve: "I'm gonna fix these bushings; when I ream them out, what kind of clearance do you want?"

So I called two local experts on this perplexing topic, about which I know nothing.

Expert 1: "Never ever ream a bushing because you can't grip it tight enough, so it will not work afterwards. What on earth were they thinking of?"

Expert 2: (When told of expert 1's opinion) "That's BS. The hole in the bushings is made too small so it can be reamed to fit the worn shaft properly, which is to say with .002 or less clearance."

What would you have done after you changed pants? Where would you have looked for help? What would you have looked for?

Can't say I agree with your Expert 1, though perhaps he's referring to trying to ream a bushing before it's pressed into place, i.e. holding it in your hand while trying to ream it - which is not the way to do it, press it into place or chuck it in a lathe.

Can't say I agree with your Expert 2, an OEM bushing is designed for an OEM (unworn) shaft, though perhaps he's referring to a semi-finished bushing intended as a service part and reamed to fit.

Rebushing the distributor should be about as simple a service job as there is, yet whomever is doing it for you seems to be befuddled by it. The whole job start to finish shouldn't take an hour. Why not just pick up your parts and send them to someone who knows what they're doing. If you don't want to do business with AER (who would be my choice) there are quite a few shops listed in Hemmings that specialize in distributors, generators, etc.

Pat,
What's your email address? I know it doesn't matter at this point, but I would still like to see if I can find either of your emails in my inbox somewhere. Pretty rare (hopefully) that I would not respond to an email of anyone who is not trying to boost my internet search engine results! I searched for your name the other night and nothing came up, I'd like to try it by email address. I certainly apologize if it was an error on my part.
-Jason
Advanced Electrical Rebuilders
jason@aerrebuild.com
www.aerrebuild.com

Unless I missed something, doesn't appear we are talking about emails to the same person or company. I believe the original inquiry was about no reply from Advanced Distributor Rebuilders. O_D recommended contacting AER instead and the thread continued in that direction. It might be good to confirm which company was emailed and didn't respond.

I thought the same thing at first, but then he stated that I didn't return two of his emails. I'm just trying to figure out if something went wrong on my end, nothing more. No offense or hard feelings from my direction. I just don't understand how I would've missed two emails.
-Jason

I got ADR as the source; they were who I emailed. It was not AER. Jason, I apologize for any stress I may have induced.

I undoubtedly should have sent this wretched thing to you.

At every road bump, I have thought that this would be the lasr issue and then it would be an hour at most to liftoff.

My intent at the moment is to see how the distributor works and go from there. I'd like to get some use of the car this fall. When I am ready to tuck the car in for the winter I will re-evaluate and go from there.

What is the range of cost for a total rebuild of a Delco 1110880 so that it works to perfection? It occurs to me that the vacuum device should be rebuilt as well since it appearsa to be original.

I have bookmarked Jason's site and appreciate everyone's patience with this keystone cop adventure.

Quote:

Pat - Good idea to have the vacuum advance chamber rebuilt. My 115C started running hotter than normal and was exhibiting some vapor locking. First time ever for both conditions. Knowing noting had changed in the cooling system, the first thing I checked was the vacuum advance, and it was leaking. I bumped the timing to about 10 BTC and it seemed to help keep the temp down, but the leaking vacuum advance is the real problem and needs to be fixed. I bought a rebuilt one from Max Merritt. The price was $125 plus a $75 core charge for the old one. Expensive, but I got it in two days.

Retarded timing or timing not advancing enough will contribute to over heating. I think that too often we blame the wrong things for engines that run too warm or over heat. Ignition timing and advance is a good place to look first and easy to fix. A leaking vacuum advance will create two problems: Will not allow the vacuum advance to function properly; and, because of the leaking, will slightly lean out the fuel mixture. Both will contribute to overheating.

I am thinking about connecting the advance chamber directly to engine manifold vacuum to see if having full vacuum advance at idle will lower the engine temperature. This after setting the initial timing and then resetting the engine idle speed. There would be no more total advance with this method.

I guess this means my lecture is over. Good luck on getting your distributor rebuilt.

(o{}o)

We are now on hold because the individual reaming (correct term?) the bushing has lost what ever size cutter he needs and is ordering a new one.

You guessed it; it's on backorder.

I'h headed out to get a large rock onto which I intend to tell the complete story. The rock goes with the car....

pat,

time to get back ups,,

engine,,trans, dist, gen, etc.

one goes out , drop other in, no down time.. except putting it in..

Do you think I can get a reality show out of all this? From my perspective it would be stellar....but...

"With grief condign, I must decline...."