chryslerfat
Well-Known Member
Yes its 1/2 and most of what I work on dont go over 5,500 so 5 grand to test will be ok.
Sun MDT distributor tester
- Thread starter chryslerfat
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That is Crank RPM I posted. Just FYI
chryslerfat
Well-Known Member
Ok I hooked up a nearly dead 6 volt battery and the gauge lights all light. The vacuum pump seems to be trying. The dwell meter is inop. I do not have a square tool to tighten the dist. gear so I am assuming that is why the RPM is bouncing a bit and the arrows with the strobe are walking around the circle. The volt gauge is reading 6 volts but I did not put a digital volt meter on the battery.
yellow rose
Overnight Sensation
Not sure what the size is on a Sun machine but you can buy about any square size stock at any decent hardware store. And a wooden handle of some sort and that’s your tool to snug down the distributor.
Also, I’m not sure why the 6 bolt battery. If you can use a 12 volt I would. That’s what I use.
Also not sure why you can’t use the battery to run a aftermarket tach so you can test higher than 5000 RPM. You’d be surprised what you’ll find. Also, if you do the 12 volt battery, you can hook up any ignition system and bench test it.
Unless the Sun is that much different than the Allen.
Get some square stock or find a old screwdriver that has the same size square stock for the chuck.
Do not hook up a 12V battery to it you will fry the power supply and meters, prob some lights also. No idea why they did it that way just a MDT thing back in the day.
The tach is driven almost like a points set up on the main shaft in a small round box. Is it thumping when it turns? Also did you get the books from the guy?
chryslerfat
Well-Known Member
He is going to call me on Monday so I can run up and get them.I dont hear a thumping just what sounds like bearing noise but that has begun to fade to about 1/2 of what it was when I firt plugged it in. I cant read the silkscreen good but when I switch the knob from what appears to be 8 lobe to the left 2 positions the tach steadys. I will figure something out for square stock next. I have the battery on a charger now and will run it again this weekend to see if I can get the dwell meter working
67Dart273
Well-Known Member
I STILL don't have my Allen dist. tester rebuilt. I (am) modernizing it with a different vacuum pump and a Mopar reluctor trigger to drive a different tach circuit. When I get done "I hope" it will work both with points and with electronic ignitions
Starting to rebuild the Allen distributor machine
Starting to rebuild the Allen distributor machine
Pretty cool idea. will you have to phase it? I don't know about Allen machines but on sun testers you need a signal amplifier to do electronic pickup distributors.
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Never mind Dell just read your thread, pretty cool!
chryslerfat
Well-Known Member
@halifaxhops I picked up the manual he found. It is from 1948 and from that I learned there are 2 D cell batteries in the machine. When I took the caps off the bottom was ok but the top battery was all rust. I was able to pull it out but the holder is rusted away. Is there a fix for this?
chryslerfat
Well-Known Member
Ok I just found and ordered 2 D cell holders with wires.
Have to change them out Mark at Paramount has them, also check if the covers are warped. If so the rivet wont hit the ground on the machine look at them you will see what I mean hard to explain.
LOL could not pass this one up.
Have to check it out and see what it needs, supossevly runs. Prob sell it afterwards. Really cant use it the distributor RPM stops at 2.5K.
Have to check it out and see what it needs, supossevly runs. Prob sell it afterwards. Really cant use it the distributor RPM stops at 2.5K.
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JUST FYI info from Paramount.
About Us
Distributor Testers Descriptions
One of the top questions I get about distributor testers is what is the difference between the models. Sun started making distributor testers in the mid-to-late 1940's. The main tester was a "Master Model", which had four meters: RPM & dwell meters on the left and vacuum & battery voltage meters on the right. RPM meter max was 2000 distributor RPM. (Note: distributor RPM is half engine RPM, so double whatever the RPM meter max is, in this case 4000 engine RPM). The Master Model was produced on into the mid-1950's along with the "Standard Model".
The Standard Model was a three-meter tester with RPM, dwell & vacuum meters. It had smaller meters, all on the right side of the tester. Distributor RPM was increased to 2500 RPM. Both the Master & Standard testers had a distributor specifications scroll on top of the machine.
In 1959, the machines started to look a little different and now had model numbers on top of the machine. The model numbers seem to have no real order in that the first ones (oldest) were the 600 & 680. All the others (newer models) that follow are lower numbers.
The 600 is a four-meter tester with RPM & dwell meters on the left and condenser & vacuum meters on the right. RPM is now 3000 with a 4000 option.
The 680 is a two-meter tester with a unique dual RPM/dwell meter on the left & vacuum meter on the right. RPM was 3000 with a 4000 option.
Around 1963, the 500 & 400 models came out to replace the 600 & 680. The 500 is a four-meter tester with RPM & dwell meters on the left and condenser & vacuum meters
The 400 is a three-meter tester with RPM, dwell & vacuum meters on the right. Standard RPM is 3000 with a 4000 option.
The 400, 500 & 600 had a D-cell and a AA battery that needed periodic changing. The 680 had a single AA battery.
In 1969, the 504 & 404 came out. An internal transformer replaced the need for batteries, and both models now had a standard RPM of 4000. Both had a dual range RPM meter with a toggle switch to switch between a 1000/4000 scale on the meter face.
The 504 is a four-meter tester with RPM & dwell meters on the left and condenser & vacuum meters on the right. Standard 4000 RPM. Early models had mechanical vacuum pumps and later ones had electric vacuum pumps.
The 404 is a three-meter tester with RPM, dwell & vacuum meters on the right. Standard 4000 RPM. Early models had mechanical vacuum pumps and later ones had electric vacuum pumps.
Also produced around this time was the 506. It is a four-meter tester with RPM & dwell meters on the left and condenser & vacuum meters on the right. The 506 was different in two ways. RPM was a screaming 0-6000! That's 12,000 engine RPM. It was the only distributor tester Sun made with a white xenon flashtube, all the others being orange neon. Those models were produced into about 1978.
All the testers used vacuum pumps. Some were mechanical pumps that ran whenever the machine was running and some were electric pumps that had a on/off switch on the front case.
The last model was the EDT-5001 produced in Brazil at a Sun-owned plant. It was much different from the earlier models, with modern circuit boards and no flashtube. Mechanical advance was read on an analog meter. Production ceased in the 1980's.
To sum things up, what we have are four-meter or three-meter machines that can spin probably any distributor you can come up with. Sun made different adapters for different kinds of distributors. When electronic distributors started coming out in the 1960's & 70's, Sun produced a pulse amplifier to trigger the tester.
If any Sun experts can add any information, I would be glad to hear from you.
yellow rose
Overnight Sensation
Glad you saved it. I wonder how much stuff like this ended up in garbage dumps, scrap yards or sitting somewhere rotting away. That’s just a shame when that happens.
Saved a few over the years.
69DodgeMan
Well-Known Member
I wish someone knew something about this machine. It evidently is a VERY early SUN machine, like real early 40's. It has some capacitors that have 1936 date codes on them. Runs on 6V only. Kinda works, intermittent then peters out all together, like something getting hot and quitting?
rustycowll69
Well-Known Member
I can't help you, but that's a very cool machine. Thank you for preserving it.
Never saw that one Just sent the picture to Mark.
69DodgeMan
Well-Known Member
Yeah, like someone else mentioned, if nothing else it can always be some pretty cool garage art.
He said early 40's and knows nothing about them.
yellow rose
Overnight Sensation
Well that’s a bummer. When my machine first got here I tried to find someone, anyone around here to look at the wiring and such but no one wants to touch this stuff.
I was told if you can find someone who can restore an old pin ball machine they can figure out this analog stuff. I couldn’t find one of those under a 20 hour drive either.
I can do the next model and up and parts are a bitchg to find. I have no idea what is inside that one. Neither does Mark. I would think pretty rare.
69DodgeMan
Well-Known Member
I don't think it is too terribly different than the later models. It is direct drive instead of a belt drive. The wiring is probably a little more "primitive" but I'll bet the basic concept of operation is very similar. I've a feeling that the power supply (I think its a high voltage supply) pictured at the top is not operating quite right. I think it is what was called a multi-vibrator type supply or sometimes referred to as a "chopper" type. The flash tube does "flash" part of the time, but then I'm thinking the HV supply drops and the tube stops firing?? Vacuum pump was inop when I got it just like everything else was. Got the vac pump working fine now, RPM meter responds to varying speeds but isn't 100% accurate.
69DodgeMan
Well-Known Member
Probably, but as we know, "Rare" doesn't always translate into "Valuable".
I'm sure I paid too much for it and will never be able to recoup that expense.
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