Cali,68,L-79

Is their an internal ground wire within a points distributer I might be missing? as per http://forums.corvetteforum.com/zerothread?id=700857

mrvette

YES, there certainly is...going from the points mounting plate to the case ground...it's super important, and can break making certain positions of the vacuum advance kill the ignition entirely....
you can use a super flexible piece of wire or mesh grounding wire for this if you leave a flex loop in it....gotta distribute that bending over a long piece of flexible wire....

GENE

Cali,68,L-79

can't find it. Where exactly is this wire? Where does it connect to the plate and where does it connect to the body?

mrvette

Cali, been a LONG time but as I recall...you looking for a slotted pan head screw on the plate I want to say outer edge, with a wire loop/connector going to it.....and it disappears under the edge and onto another screw in the body casting....

I may be rong about the outer edge....damnit, I hate forgetting crap like that...but I do know the original wire was black...my old favorite way of testing it was just tug on the middle of the wire to see if it stretched any, if it does, or the insulation dried out and broke....it's bad....
had a gold /brass colored wire loop under the screw, crimped onto the wire...

you maybe better off with dist out of car to see the damn thing....gotta have cap/rotor off, obviously....

GENE

Cali,68,L-79

I've got nothing like that. i'll try a scraibe to bring it up but it looks like I got to remove the dist, yet again, everything has to be cyt, wire loom etc. and punch out the cottor key becuase it's inaccesible from above.

:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

mrvette

NO, not to my recollection you do not have to take the shaft/etc out of the housing to get at this wire,....you may find it on the inside edge toward the center of the unit, near the shaft......sorry but my specific memory is shot on that fine point...but I"d know it if i saw it......;-)))

you can get to the housing end of the wire easy if you remove the vacuum canister....making plate rotation easy....

GENE

Cali,68,L-79

Okay got the distributer out on the bench. From a side view the ground wire is screwed into the vacuum advance underneath the breaker plate. I cannot figure how to pull of the breaker plate. I removed the dist. gear and it slid only so far and stops. Do you have to take out the tach drive gear connection or something.

I'VE STOPPED BECUASE I'M IN UNTRIED TERRITORY.

Is the ground wire supposed to be on the breaker plate or screwed into the vac. advance like it is? How do I remove the shaft so I can lift the plate and check/ re-place the ground wire???????


:confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:


[Modified by Cali,68,L-79, 10:33 PM 11/29/2003]

Cali,68,L-79

Hey it just hit me like a ton of bricks. Is that whole breaker plate supposed to rotate separate from the dist. shaft with vacuum advance? If so it's broke becuase it won't budge one bit. :eek: the vacuum advance pulls outward and the linkage pulls the breaker plate counter clockwise. It doesn't do jack and it's a new vacuum advance.

:confused: :confused:

Smokehouse69

You have to remove the tach gear, and the distributor gear from the bottom of the shaft. There is a roll-pin that is sort of a pain to drive out of the distributor gear.
There is a ground wire that runs from the base plate and is attached to one of the mounting screws that holds down the vacuum advance. On some distributors it is actually a braided strap, on others it is a black wire. I've put a picture of a distributor, the wire can be seen coming off the bottom of plate 4 in the diagram.
If you are missing this wire, then get a short piece of 16-18 gauge wire and crimp a lug on each end. Screw down one end to one of the mounting screws that holds down the vacuum advance, and the other to any screw on the mounting plate.





[Modified by Smokehouse69, 11:10 PM 11/29/2003]

Cali,68,L-79

got it. Thanks but it turned out there was a ground soldered to the bottom of the breaker plate so unfortunetly that is not my problem.

mrvette

In a stock setup there are no soldered connections in that distrubutor....so sounds like someone been there before....you need make sure the wire you use is fine stranded, and very flexible, with a decent loop of an inch extra wire for when that vacuum advance pulls the breaker plate around that wire has plenty of room for flex without stressing any one portion and making it break and loose connection....this wire is the ground for the points otherwise you are relying on the bearing (s) to do the job...and that's lousey practice which MAY work sometimes, but most often NOT.....

when that vacuum advance pot is unbolted and un hooked, the plate should move very freely, if not, that's a defect and needs fixed....
the difficulty removing the dist shaft is due to crud buildup on the dist shaft that will not pass easily through the top bush bearing, so you need try carb cleaner or maybe WD on the shaft, soak it for a while, and work it through without too much force....be careful as those tach drive dist shaft are super thin where the gear is, and so can bend easier than the full 1/2 inch diameter....
most often the lower bearing is all ate up and the shaft is all grooved and torn up too....if you pull the shaft and see that situation, get back to us and maybe we can help then....

kGENE

redvetracr

I have 15 tach drive points distributors here and ALL have a soldered wire on the bottom of the points plate!! ...redvetracr

Cali,68,L-79

Well replaced the ground wire and started putting the distributer back in when i realized I had turned the car over several times and did not re-scribe the rotor position.

I'm such a blithering idiot sometimes. :rolleyes:

Also FAUXRS mentioned that mallory coils do not like being used without ballasts. I removed the ballast as per Pertronix instructions. ANyone have the down low on this???