Distributor questions?

Wayne64 · Post by **Wayne64** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 5:37 pm

I basically have only a few questions upfront before trying to get some fire back into the B1, I also have an observation I'll add at the end .

1. My only book (TM 9-8030) shows a picture of an early carb elbow, are the B1s different as to the distributor cooling lines?

I'm asking since I got an extra elbow and carb with the truck and don't see a bent pickup tube on the dizzy supply and only a straight piece with an angled cut closest to the carb. I haven't a clue what I reinstalled after the carb rebuild and will pull it back apart to check.

2. These two lines look like they were replaced and is there a preferred in and out on the distributor body?

I'm doing my reading and came up with a problem. I do a search for say distributor, the results show two pages of posts. After finishing reading the first page I click on page two and get a message (nothing matches what you asked for) or something like that. This has happened to me a few times with different searches?

VROD02 · Post by **VROD02** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 6:17 pm

Try " ignitor". To me any you its a dist. but to the military engineers its...

MSeriesRebuild · Post by **MSeriesRebuild** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 6:46 pm

The vent lines are a must. The fittings are to be configured so an air circulation pattern is set up. This cools the coil, etc. If you don't have vent lines working correctly, the coil won't live long.

Wayne64 · Post by **Wayne64** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 7:24 pm

Charles, I understand about the importance of the lines. That was what I learned while in the forum search mode reading what you and others mentioned. But being disabled I only want to go into the distributor once and need to find out about the cooling lines so I know that things are right.

MSeriesRebuild · Post by **MSeriesRebuild** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 7:50 pm

Wayne64 wrote:Charles, I understand about the importance of the lines. That was what I learned while in the forum search mode reading what you and others mentioned. But being disabled I only want to go into the distributor once and need to find out about the cooling lines so I know that things are right.

Nothing special about how the lines are hooked on the distributor. The fitting on the carb neck with the 90* tube heads upstream, slanted straight tube on the other fitting, the opening is facing down stream or have I got this backwards, can't get my mind in gear right now, but you get the idea. Easy to see how it goes when the line fitting openings are pointed downward. This creates the air circulation forcing air through the distributor housing.

topellis · Post by **topellis** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 7:12 am

Wayne,
As to the orentation of the fittings in the elbow, I forget where but I did find it in one of the manuals... I will look and see if I can find it. When I was doing mine it seems I remember that the important thing was that one of the fittings was orentated in the elbow so that the incoming air would have a ram air effect on one fitting by the opening of the fitting facing into the incoming air. The other fitting was faced downstream which would have a vacum effect. This would provide positive air circulation. There used to be a real good web site on distributors and carbs but the owner has pulled it off line. I wish I would have printed all the info that was on the site but I thought it would always be there... and hate it now.

Good luck,
Mark

Nickathome · Post by **Nickathome** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 9:06 am

I'm not exactly sure, but I don't think it matters which fitting is which as long as one faces the oncoming air and the other faces away as to cause a circulatory effect. I had to make my tubes that went inside the elbow as none were present when I bought the truck and the vent lines were disconnected. I made mine with a common connector and some brake line tubing bent and soldered in place.

MSeriesRebuild · Post by **MSeriesRebuild** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 9:23 am

Nickathome wrote:I'm not exactly sure, but I don't think it matters which fitting is which as long as one faces the oncoming air and the other faces away as to cause a circulatory effect. I had to make my tubes that went inside the elbow as none were present when I bought the truck and the vent lines were disconnected. I made mine with a common connector and some brake line tubing bent and soldered in place.

Nicks method works just fine & he's also right on the fact that it doesn't matter which hole they are in so long as it's set up to force air circulation. If you want to get more specific, I can check for you though.

knattrass · Post by **knattrass** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 3:55 pm

Charles - the upstream tube points directly into the current and the diagonally sliced straight tube is downstream with the open side of the tube aimed downstream. This way you get positive pressure upstream and the negative draw downstream.

Wayne64 · Post by **Wayne64** » Tue Dec 09, 2008 9:18 am

Today I pulled the distributor and figured I'll find TDC following the only book I have TM-9-8030. First I pulled the carb elbow and that also doesn't have a correct hook up for the cooling lines, which I'll address. I found two paint marks on the crank pulley, but couldn't see any stamped marks. Now knowing that the book is wrong on the base timing and not trusting others marks I'll have to clean the rust off and try to determine where 4* BTDC is on the pulley. I do remember seeing a photo showing the marks somewhere on the net, a location or link will help. The putting your finger in the plug hole and feeling for the compression stroke didn't work for me. I looked for a whistle device I had for that purpose but couldn't find it. Then I grabbed my homemade piston stop thing I used to use on racing 2 strokes, I planned on pulling out the stop rod and use a balloon to tell when we were coming up on TDC compression. No luck with that idea as I had only tack welded it. The next old method worked. I used to do powder coating for my hobby and have an assortment of silicon tapered plugs, I found the right size and screwed it into the plug hole. I sure found TDC as the plug shot out of the head with a pop and landed 15 feet away. So long story short I could use a pic of those timing marks.
P.S. I just found out about the tapped hole over #6 and I can use that to get back a firm TDC, but that leads to two questions. What size threads does that plug have and if someone has a pulley loose please let me know how far away is 4 degrees from DC around the pulley?

pfrederi · Post by **pfrederi** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 6:03 am

The timing marks are stamped (some what lightly on mine) on the edge. If you have found TDC I would use some paint remover to uncover the marks...too much sanding might obliterate them.

The test hole on # 6 is a plain old pipe plug

Wayne64 · Post by **Wayne64** » Wed Dec 10, 2008 6:30 pm

While it's apart, what are the test values on a 24v coil? Thanks much

pfrederi · Post by **pfrederi** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 8:42 am

Got to para 93 of your manual it has tests for your distributor and coil. I do not know what test values should be for the coil. Problem with coils is they will work/test ok cold but heat them up and they conk out. If yours tests OK but you have problem with her dying while warmed up or not wanting to restart when hot swapping out the coil is the quickest alternative...

Wayne64 · Post by **Wayne64** » Thu Dec 11, 2008 2:51 pm

Thanks Paul, I must have missed that whole section on testing.

Distributor questions?

Distributor questions?

fittings

Re: fittings

Need photo

Pulley Marking