Fi distributor

[Clem Z.]

Re: Fi distributor

OK, well after thinking through several of the ideas offered here and talking with experts this is where we ended up. My problem was with the distributor not being able to be turned enough to advance the car to where it needed to be without the motor dying was diagnosed to a loss of grounding for the Petronix module. The ground is supposed to be picked up through the distributor. The FI distributor is several components and chevy distributors apparently do have problems at times with grounding. The fix was to run a separate ground wire from the Petronix base plate directly to the engine ground. Simple. In the process I also found a very clever and handy way to statically time a motor given that you know accurately what the advance curve is for your distributor. Don provides a very complete advance curve so that was easy. If anyones interested in using this method it only works with the PetonixI which is what I have. So the motor fired right up and advance beautifully to full advance. it was a good day.

sounds like the same problem that occurs when the grounding wire to the point/condeser mounting plate breaks and the grounding is only thru the moving parts. this is why we always bolted or brazed this plate to the dist. housing

[William C.]

Re: Fi distributor

In the auto industry we had a shorthand for stuff that was unnecessarily complicated, Derived from the acronym found in the initials for "Multifunction tone generator" or MUFTG for short other wise referred to as "MF Toy Gadget" Original used in Oldsmobiles in the min '70's as I recall...Just a useful today to eat up unnecessary diagnostic time to fix an "enhanced" system that replaced one that already worked well...

[Jerry G.]

Re: Fi distributor

Yep Same deal.

[George J.]

Re: Fi distributor

sounds like the same problem that occurs when the grounding wire to the point/condeser mounting plate breaks and the grounding is only thru the moving parts. this is why we always bolted or brazed this plate to the dist. housing

Clem,
how did this problem of the grounding through the moving parts manifest itself? Was it a complete loss of power, or an intermittent miss?

George

[Clem Z.]

Re: Fi distributor

Clem,
how did this problem of the grounding through the moving parts manifest itself? Was it a complete loss of power, or an intermittent miss?

George

mostly a intermittent miss and or rough idle

[George J.]

Re: Fi distributor

mostly a intermittent miss and or rough idle

Clem,
are there things we can do to make sure our grounding in this area is always as good as it can be?

George

[Clem Z.]

Re: Fi distributor

Clem,
are there things we can do to make sure our grounding in this area is always as good as it can be?

George

use a ohm meter on both ends of the ground wire after unscrewing it from the dist housing and pull and tug on the wire to check the continuity. from the plate moving with the vacuum advance the wire sometime breaks internally.

[George J.]

Re: Fi distributor

Clem,
thanks.

George

[Duke W.]

Re: Fi distributor

As far as I know, new breaker plates are not available for single point distributors (and the ground wire was soldered to breaker plates during manufacturing), but I think that new ground wires are available that can be soldered to an existing breaker plate with a broker ground wire, and it's not that hard to fab one on your own.

Duke

[Joe C.]

Re: Fi distributor

Braided copper wire can withstand more cycles of bending than stranded wire. Use bare, braided wire like that used as pigtails for brushes.

http://www.ganpatiengineering.com/

[Clem Z.]

Re: Fi distributor

Braided copper wire can withstand more cycles of bending than stranded wire. Use bare, braided wire like that used as pigtails for brushes.

http://www.ganpatiengineering.com/

on a race engine just bolt or braze the plate to the housing and the grounding will not be a problem since you dont need a vacuum advance

[Bob I.]

Re: Fi distributor

MSD box requires a minimum, of 12
Volts. It will cause a misfire, with lower voltage.

Bob

[Clem Z.]

Re: Fi distributor

MSD box requires a minimum, of 12
Volts. It will cause a misfire, with lower voltage.

Bob

MSD runs on 10 volts just needs lots of amps and that is why it needs to be connected directly to the battery