IML: 56 Ignition - Part 2

[Jeff Cantor <jcantor791@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions to my earlier post.  Since  
I had today off, I decided to put some of those ideas to use.   
Voltage across the open points was 12V and between the coil and  
ground with closed points is about 9V - less than full voltage which  
means that the ballast resistor is indeed in the circuit and is  
working but not as low as I was expecting.

Then I decided to take the next step.  I was able to pull the  
distributor, clean and reset the points, and replace the condenser.   
I also put in a new coil as the old one was definitely leaking oil.   
The car started pretty quickly considering it's 25F out there and it  
hasn't been run for at least two months.  Idle was okay but not great  
and almost any effort to rev it up made things much worse.  I was  
able to back it out of the garage and then pull back in.  Putting a  
load on the engine made things a little better at idle but much worse  
above that.

Despite feeling little if any free play in the distributor while I  
had it in the vise on the workbench, I'm beginning to think that it  
may need to be rebuilt.  Perhaps either the mechanical or vacuum  
advance are the issue or some other more basic parts mechanics  
there.  Interestingly enough, I discovered that while this is the  
distributor that has been on the car since I got it in 2003 and has  
run very well up until last summer, it is not the correct part number  
according to the factory parts manual I have.

Right now I'm putting this project back on hold until the weather  
warms up again.

Jeff
'56 Sedan
Trenton, NJ


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