Thanks Gary,
I can not tell you how pleased I was with the work of The Philbin Group.
The distributor looks like a piece of art now!
I paid $145.
They did a complete rebuild. New vac capsule (only if needed, sometimes
they rebuild it Mark said)
New points, capacitor, breaker plate (I think).Nice paint job, carefully
masking off the id plate.
New interconnect wire between the points.
Run tested, dwell set etc.
Mark said he's been doing distributors for 30 years.
I was frankly surprised at what a difference it made.
I am still "adjusting" the idle of the engine. I have been able to
adjust the fast idle way down so the engine starts
ok, idles a little fast cold and then comes off fast idle as it
should then idles at a steady 650 hot or cold(ish).
However, the idle is not as smooth as I wo uld like for it to be. I
"feel" (tailpipe listening) like there are some valves too tight.
I recalled a helper one weekend who was a self styled expert, and who
ruined all my AFB linkages by adjusting them with pliers-also adjusted my
valves for me. I have a Barnes cam which is specially ground to lower the
compression of the engine, and I rcall the Barnes valve clearances are
substantially different that the stock clearances. I think he ended up using
the factory clearances with the Barnes cam. So, my next step is to
remove all the plugs (J14Y) and while the plugs are out. set all the valves to
Barnes specified clearances , so at least I'll KNOW that's right. Next
I'll put my set of new J12Y plugs in properly gapped. Then. I plan on checking
the aiur volume between the two carbs, and adjust idle bypass screw to get
that evened out, get the rpm right again and set all 4 idle richness
screws, which I do not think I have right yet as the car s talls too easil
backing out of my uphill driveway cold.
Best, Mike Moore
I am the culprit that
send out Philbin Group contact. There is nothing like a distributor that is
set up properly. You may have bad bushings that will effect points dwell,
dried up grease on the points plate bearing that will compromise the vacuum
advance, same grease on the centrifugal weights that can prevent full travel,
weak springs on centrifugal weights, improper timing when vacuum advance kicks
in and a bad vac advance.
I would bet there are
plenty of vac advances not working. Good thing, Philbin rebuilds
them.
And yes, the timing will
change after the distributor is set up properly.
Their charge is very
reasonable. Maybe Mike can tell us what their current charge
is.
A couple of weeks ago, I brought up my 300H carb adjustment
difficulties for advice and the fact that I had difficulty adjust ing the
idle to a steady 650 as the engine would "run away" and go up to 900 rpm,
.i.e., the timing seemed unstable at 650.
As suggested by somone on this list, I sent the distributor to the
Philbin Group where it received an overhaul. They did a spectacular job.
It came back while I was on vacation, but is now installed and it made
a big difference, Idle speed around 650is now very stable. The engine runs
better on the highway and on acceleration through the gears.
Here is a curious thing: I very carefully punch marked the distributor
base and the block before it left at the point where the timing was correct
to help in installing it. Those marks were way off after overhaul. Not
that it matters, but it is certainly ponderable as to the cause. It
must be because the of breaker plate, new points etc. are a little
different.
Mike Moore
300H
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