Vacuum Advance Mounting

[Pep48]

There is a small pin on the distributor breaker plate (next to the points) which the arm of the vacuum advance attaches to.

Seems to me that there must be some sort of fastener to keep the arm from popping off. I don't see a groove on the pin for an "E-clip"?

Mine is missing.

Anyone know what type on clip or fastener is used?

Thanks!

[Happy 46R]

Hello Pep48,

Not sure this will help however on my spare Chrysler Corporation of Canada spare distributor the vacuum advance lever simply fits over the pin. I cannot find any sort of fastener or clip that retains the arm. Couple of photos of the spare I have.

[Mark D]

No clip on any of the dozen that I’ve rebuilt. I believe that the arms rigidity within the vacuum advance makes it hard to jump off. 

[Los_Control]

I'm guessing no there is no clip.

The vacuum advance is bolted solid to the side of distributor and the plate also is stable .... yes it rotates.

So with plate in place then attach arm of vacuum advance and then tighten the vacuum advance to side ..... it cannot  pop out of position.

 

I do not remember removing a clip from my 1950 distributor while converting it to electronic ignition.

When I assembled the 1979 dodge slant 6 distributor to complete the conversion .... 1979 just has a hole in the plate the vacuum advance arm slides into .... no clip to hold it.

They never needed a clip to hold them once all is bolted together.

[9 foot box]

   I have some distributors as spares. The original retainer clip looks like this, I lost one and replaced it with an e-clip from the hardware store selection. The arm isn’t going to jump off the pin, it’s just what I did.  Rick D.

[Los_Control]

Here is a picture of mine before I modified it .... there was no clip.

 

 

 

[desoto1939]

on my unit there is a spring clip that hold the vacuum advance arm in place but it might not be necessay to have one in place. I looked in my 39 desoto parts book and there is no listing for a spring clip to hold the lever onto the stud.

 

Rich Hartung

desoto1939@aol.com

Edited Thursday at 08:50 PM by desoto1939

[Pep48]

The reason I think it needs a fastener is because when I rotate the breaker plate (as the vacuum advance shaft moves) the shaft pops off of the pin.

Found them today at Ace Hardware. Need to bring in my breaker plate to get the right size. These are called "Push nuts for un-threaded shafts"

I will report back with my results.

[Pep48]

Hi Rich same here, there is no clip listed in the parts book (at least not in my parts books).

Sonny

[Los_Control]

Just my 2 cents.

If things are working as they should, the plate rotates smoothly on a flat plane ...

I had one distributor with ball bearings it rotated on .... while I did free it up, the ball bearings had rust on them and were no longer smooth and round .... the plate would go up and down as it rotated.

 

And if the vacuum advance is frozen and non working, when the plate rotates and the advance arm does not .... something has to give and the pivot point with no clip would be the weak link.

 

The vacuum advance will pivot with vacuum applied to it ... have you tried this approach to use a little hand held vacuum pump to operate the vacuum advance?

Does the lever still pull off using the vacuum pump? .... this is what the parts will see is a vacuum moving the parts. .... not you manually moving them.

 

So in a perfect world, no clip is needed .... If you have something less then perfect .... A clip to hold the arm on may not be the correct fix.

 

 

These are pretty cheap and many uses for them around a vehicle.

[clarkede]

You guys just made me realize that the advance "pin" was hitting the magnetic sleeve of the Pertonix electronic ignition that I installed a couple years ago.  Thanks!

 

Also, you can see that I do not have any type of retaining clip to keep the arm from popping off of the pin.  I really don't think there is any chance that it would just pop off by itself without unbolting the vacuum advance from the side of the distributor.  

 

I am going to be physically cleaning up my distributor in the next few weeks to a month - including possibly repainting it.  I would also like to fix the bladder inside the advance as I'm sure it's dry-rotten.  Los_Control - I love your idea of testing it with a vacuum pump - which I will also do for the fun of it and watch what happens before and after I clean it up.  I've seen where the vacuum advance can be pried into with a lot of patience, so I might give that a try for fun.  Otherwise I will attempt to get a new one.  Anyone ever attempt to repair it themselves?  Is it even worth trying?

[9 foot box]

   I don’t have that vacuum tool. And don’t know what I’d do with it. Seems like it should have heavier tubing for suction. I did rob a vacuum pump from a refrigerator as a vacuum source for checking wiper motors and advance mechanism’s on distributors. When I saw that the pin on the advance plate had a groove for a retainer, I figured that an e-clip was the way to insure that the arm stayed on the pin. Seems to work, I’ll leave it on. I’ll save that one wire retainer that was used before e-clips were invented. They used cotter pins and horseshoe clips when our vehicles were built. Thanks for the input. 

[vintage6t]

5 hours ago, clarkede said:

I've seen where the vacuum advance can be pried into with a lot of patience, so I might give that a try for fun.  Otherwise I will attempt to get a new one.  Anyone ever attempt to repair it themselves?  Is it even worth trying?

 

I have. I used a donor diaphragm from another advance. The donor was a new advance with the same diameter that I had lying around.  The original donor application was unknown.

 

1. Pried both cans open.

2. Removed both arms from thier respective diaphragms by drilling out the attaching rivet.

3. Riveted the old arm to the new diaphragm. Sealed the rivet with weather strip cement.

4. Sealed the diaphragm to the old can with weather strip cement.

5. Peened the lip of the old cover back onto the can.

 

Between prying and peening the advance got kind of beat up but it worked fine. I took pictures of the process when I did it but looks like I deleted them. Attached pic is the finished working advance.

 

Edited 8 hours ago by vintage6t

[soth122003]

Man Vintage, did that thing owe you money? When I first saw the pic I thought it was wielded. I remember working on my fuel sender and how soft the metal was. It looked a lot like that when I finished. But if it works, you did a good job. Of course, I am a function over form kinda guy. If it has to look pretty, I get some one else to help.

 

Joe Lee