Distributor springs

[GARRICK.CLARK1]

Hi.
What's the common distributor spring configuration. Mine on the pertronix are both the weakest for quick advance, but is that the best.

[madmike]

I know on my old 010 ,toss one spring and it's quick advance ,, hell I don't know Jack I run locked 24* sorry I'm no help

[GARRICK.CLARK1]

Lol.

[buguy]

I think when i had a dizzy i just ran what was in it. Sorry no help here either.

[GARRICK.CLARK1]

OK thanks guys. Think I'll go the ultimate timing route and lock it at 24 like Mike has.

[carsten bb]

You can play with the springs and set up the advance curve your engine needs.
I found this old response I made a little over 20 years ago..
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=9678&p=66796&hilit= ... tor#p66796

Carsten

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I know on my old 010 ,toss one spring and it's quick advance ,, hell I don't know Jack I run locked 24* sorry I'm no help

One thing that I think is important is to have the distributor "spun" to see what condition it is internally. Bushing can wear, the mechanical advance can get stuck or vacuum advance (if I remember correctly the 010 does us both) part can go bad/hang up et al!
also check the cap, rotor and anything else in there.

Remember, these things are quite old now. With the new electronic ignition systems from what I understand the computer now does a lot of this.

Lee

[GARRICK.CLARK1]

Yeah thanks guys, the distributor is relatively new. I suppose a dyno session is the only real and quickest way of tuning. Looking at the screen after a power run says it all really. Mph tuning is hit n miss and a bit dangerous.
I would like to put more timing into it, but it don't like it, summertime heat stops that.
I ve used water/meth on it for years, its a good piece of kit. Can't use an intercooler as the carbs need to see psi early, and an intercooler slows the air to the carbs due to intercooler volume.

[Bruce.m]

Dave Walker describes the ideal advance as the minimum amount of advance needed to hit the max torque at any given rpm/load/etc.

To me, advance is a function of maxing the cylinder pressure at the right crank angle. A dense mix at WOT / boost / cold IAT / high dynamic compression, burns faster so less advance is required. With a thin mix at cruise / light throttle/ high altitude, the burn is slower so more advance is needed to peak at the right crank angle. Too early and the peak pressure hits the rising piston. Too late and the piston is already half way down the bore & the burn becomes wasted heat rather than kinetic energy.

Ideally, I want an combo that needs the least amount of advance (because I’m cramming the chamber), except where I’m throttling the intake with my right foot. But clearly there are compromises to that ambition.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Garrick, I have seen new distributors from well known/well thought of manufactures not worth the powder to blow them to Hades. Some had been sitting on the shelf for too long and the stretched springs lost their tension and other's the manufactures/suppliers got parts from had not met the specs they were supposed to have. The word "Spin" I referred to is to put them on a Sun Machine that does spin them checking for all components for condition and advance.

The first several paragraphs in this give some info as far a distributors go (http://www.ourdigitalmags.com/publicati ... cleBrowser) but then there is this (https://horsepowersports.com/distributo ... -comeback/). The part about the computers now doing a lot of what the distributor did is one of the things I posted about.

I don't know if this is where the problem is but it is part of what might be needed to be looked at.

Lee