Distributor Vacuum Pods?

[4woody]

The electronic distributor on my 383 was getting no vacuum advance, so I took it apart, cleaned it up, and put on a new vacuum pod- the pin on the end of the old one was MIA. The dizzy came to me with the engine, so I don't know anything about its history, but the pod I took off was marked 11*, and the new one is 9*.

With the new vac pod on and the dizzy on the workbench I put the vacuum pump to it, but the pickup plate wouldn't move at all. Something was binding the arm on the vac advance. The vac advance moved fine when not in the distributor though. I took the new vac advance off and compared it to the old one and found that the bends in the arms, and their lengths are not the same.

Please take a look at these photos. The 9* looks right to me but doesn't work right, The 11* (with the homemade pin) works without binding, but looks wrong to me.

What do you think is going on? Are there several different arm styles out there?

http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar...et.com/albums/v102/Hughee/028_zps8389ebd8.jpg

 

[RustyRatRod]

There are several different ones and several different distributors. You need to get the distributor number for use when you are looking foa a vacuum advance.

 

[4woody]

There is no number tag on the dizzy, but there is a cast-in number: 2444676. Does that help? I was told the engine may have been original to a Jensen.

I didn't want to go back to the original pod as 11* was more than I wanted, but I could make my temporary pin replacement more permanent if I have to...

 

[4woody]

Got it kinda figured out. The distributor is a mid-60's vintage that someone converted to electronic. Unfortunately, it appears that the vac pod is no longer readily available.

May be a Firecore in my near future...

 

[AJ/FormS]

I seem to remember that pods with "R" suffixes fit in distributors that rotate clockwise eg smallblocks, and "L" suffixes fit into ccw dizzys eg all others. Grinding the pin off might allow a cw arm to fit in ccw housing, but the bends would be all wrong. Also in the mid 60s, there were at least 2 different dizzy mfgs. for your mopar. Hope this helps. Also, I suspect the extra degrees might not be an issue with todays fuels. I run minimum 58* total cruise timing at 2300rpm in my sbm Formula S, with 87 octane @10.7cr, al heads, .035 quench, and a Hughes230 cam. Has worked well for over 125000miles.

 

[BillGrissom]

I recall that some vacuum pods have a bent arm that fits in a different hole on the plate. However, your arms appear to be bent in different up-dwn directions. Indeed, the "R" one appears like the arm bends were buggered with, so post #5 about rotation direction sounds likely.

Before buying a new distributor, look at the "ready-to-run" "HEI distributor" on ebay. Only $59 for a 383 (courtesy of China). Simple hookup, stronger spark. However, some vendors aren't perfectly clear which models are for BB or RB engines (titles & descriptions can vary).

BTW, the Wheeler Dealers show did an episode on the Jensen Interceptor where they swooned over the Chrysler big-block under the hood.