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Dear Packard 1949:

No. The vacuum advance is not active during idle conditions.

The unit uses what is called "ported vacuum" and becomes active under part throttle acceleration and low to moderate rpm cruise conditions when more ignition advance is allowable.

Modern cars use a computer program with data cells for given throttle and load conditions. The vacuum method is a mechanical approximation.

Hope this helps.

The reason I ask-I strongly suspect that my vac adv is leaking which could cause a reduction of vacuum when trying to idle. What I do not know is where in the carb the vacuum adv pulls the vacuum above or below the throttle valve. If below(between manifold and throttle value), it seems it could have an effect on the idle of the engine.

thks

David

the vacumb is from the base of the carb in my 52 200 ,I unbolted the metal line anpd pushed some rubber vacumb line to it thaT WAS LING ENOUGH TO ALLOW ME TO WALK OVER TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ENGINE AND THEN APPLY MOUTH VACUMB ,IT WASNT ENOUGH TO MAKE THE ThING MOVE MUCH, BUT at least i COULD TEL IT WASNT LEAKING TOO MUCH

I was told my distributer is a 6 cylinder unit ,its a delco remy and the plate number is 1110125 2f25
its in my 327 inline 8 packard thunderbolt ,Im investigating a pertronix 6v pos ground sensor to replace the points
can a 8 cyl distrubetor have 6 cylinder case?is it a rebuilt ? Do I have a problem?it seems to work

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.

thats interesting I thought these cars could either have autolyte or delco systems ,I guesed because of availability ,the generator is a delco also ,but I specified this because when I was buying this one because I matched it to the distributor ,likewise with the voltage regulator !When I buy components for this era car ,suppliers are always asking is it ac or delco?
Hmm Would it be worth finding a distributer correct for the car ? The engine isnt what it was supposed to have in the car ,its a 327 with hydrolic lifters ,not the 288 I was expecting to find .seems like it was swapped or an option would that affect the distributer type thats its supposed to have ? heres a pic of the distributer san rotor to see the cam on the shaft looks like it has 8 lobes!I have had great luck with the pertronix units on 12 v v-8 projects

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I see 8 lobes. It's an 8-cylinder distributor.

As to what make (Delco or AutoLite) and model# generator, regulator, distributor etc. that should accompany a particular car (or engine if it's been swapped), just go the parts manual. It's all spelled out there with the OEM's part numbers. Most years (but not all) Packard bought from both suppliers.