'65-'67 Big Block Distributors

[Mike D.]

I'm servicing/rebuilding four distributors for '65-7 Big Block Corvettes we have under restoration. The housings do have the partially blocked Annulus Groove unique to '65-7 Big Blocks, but only one of the four still retains the original i.d.tag, which is a 1111258 ('67 427 435hp). Since I am not the original owner of any of the cars, I'd like to verify if they have the correct original Main Shafts. The main shaft footballs on two of them are stamped "171" and the other two main shaft footballs are stamped "84". Any help confirming would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Mike D.]

Re: '65-'67 Big Block Distributors

Bump Anyone?

[Wayne M.]

Re: '65-'67 Big Block Distributors

Mike --- for what it's worth, I sold a '68 427/435 T.I. distrib. [1111296], a few weeks ago (almost brand new condition). The top surface of the "football" is stamped "84" and the rotating pole piece is stamped "540", also on the top surface. Vac advance MS-201 15; Delco tag 8 B 26.

[Richard M.]

Re: '65-'67 Big Block Distributors

Mike, The other day I looked up the shafts in my parts books when you first posted, but i couldn't come up with anything useful. I never realized there were so many different part numbers and types.

Unfortunately, none of the listings gave any stamped identifier number information.

Rich

[Mike D.]

Re: '65-'67 Big Block Distributors

Thanks Wayne, that helps a lot, my 1970 P&A manual lists your 1111296 ('68 427/435hp) and my 1111258 ('67 427/435hp) as having the same part number 1969058 Main Shaft. Since yours also had the same "84" stamping on top of the Football as two of my mid-year BB castings (blocked annulus style), that likley confirms identification. I knew I had two original 1111258's, I just wanted to confirm which two.

Rich, thanks for taking the time to look as well!

[Joe L.]

Re: '65-'67 Big Block Distributors

Mike, The other day I looked up the shafts in my parts books when you first posted, but i couldn't come up with anything useful. I never realized there were so many different part numbers and types.

Unfortunately, none of the listings gave any stamped identifier number information.

Rich

Rich------

There was a plethora of distributor mainshaft part numbers. However, for the vast majority the only real difference was the brazed-on auto-cam ("football"). Unfortunately, at least to my knowledge, GM never published any chart which corresponds the part number of the shaft with the characters stamped on the auto-cam. The numbers are not even derivatives of the shaft part numbers. To make matters worse, I have found that some identically part numbered shafts (i.e. in-the-box) with what appear to be identical auto-cams have different stamped numbers.

I have been told that Dave Fiedler of TI Specialties has either found or developed a chart matching shaft part numbers to auto-cam embossed numbers. I've never seen it, though. Perhaps, Dave considers it proprietary. If we had GM blueprints of the various shafts we might be able to sort this out.

[John M.]

Re: '65-'67 Big Block Distributors

Mike, I have 67 258 distributor with a 210 football. Date is 6J12. I wish I had the car that goes with it.

[Carl N.]

Re: '65-'67 Big Block Distributors

Mike, finally had time to dig thru parts. Original Main shaft out of mid June L78 is stamped l44 (this is distributor main shaft that has "football" and gear for tach drive). I also have replacement shaft purchased in early 70's and it is stamped l69. The original star assembly that slides on shaft and has bronze bushing is stamped 734 over CCW. Hope this helps some. The two shafts appear to be identical in all aspects.