The Official 356Talk Forum

You can do a pretty accurate job by marking the pulley degrees with a felt tip pen. Build a graph by collecting the data points: number of degrees advance vs. RPM. They also sell pulleys with degrees already marked on them, but you may have to do some searching to find one that matches the 356 diameter. Gene Berg's sells a "power pulley" which matches the 356 pulley diameter and they have replacement degree rings available for it, so that would be another way to go: http://www.geneberg.com/product_info.ph ... cts_id=802. They used to sell the power pulley machined for 356, but it is currently unavailable.

Phil Planck wrote: ↑Fri Jul 01, 2022 7:08 pm There is a felt pad under the rotor. Apply some light oil and let it soak in. Give it a few days and try again. Might work.

Amen. I've had 2 lately, a BR18, and an 022, both long stored, which were so dry of lube, that the flyweight contact point was wearing fresh steel, and digging into the phenolic slide plate. the worst I've seen in over 15 years. Phil has this. I also had a recent 022, in which the original slide plate was cracked into 2 pieces, which were sticking the mechanicals... all it took to repair it was a new lubricated plate. Most of these as good as they've been, are 60 YO. The point cam also pivots on a "pin", metal to metal, and the light machine oil will wick better from the felt, to lube all under it.

jerry havel wrote: ↑Fri Jul 01, 2022 5:32 pm I have a rebuilt distributor, the VJR 4 BR 18, that doesn't return back to the minimum advance after I turn the rotor to full advance by hand...

I think it's being overlooked that Jerry's distributor has already been rebuilt, as stated above, so presumably it was inspected, cleaned and lubricated.
His concern was that it wouldn't return well when twisted by hand, and I'll repeat that doing so is not a reliable or meaningful test of it's function.

jay darlington wrote: ↑Sun Jul 03, 2022 11:35 pm if one does not have access to one of these machines what would one do ?
Jay D.

A question with a simple answer. Send the distributer to someone who knows what to do. Bruce Smith on the East Coast or John Jenkins on the West come to mind. Checking the distributers function with a tester is trivial. Returning its function to spec is not.

Jon
Good observation about rebuilt distributor. But I take just the word "rebuilt" with a grain of salt without further info. Your observation about cam location is great. Never considered that.

I replaced my Bosch distributor with a 123 fully electronic one. Peace of mind.

Ashley James wrote: ↑Tue Jul 05, 2022 5:57 am I replaced my Bosch distributor with a 123 fully electronic one. Peace of mind.

yes sir! probably at the cost of a rebuild.
Jay D.

Don't mess with it, send it out. Bill at Sparkswerks has done a great job on two of mine. Cost is anywhere from $135 to $175 depending on what it needs. If you are a stickler for authenticity, he can provide an old style condenser (with the hard wire to the + terminal). These are not new, but tested good originals.

Why would you run an old condensor? It may only last another 40 years.

Martin Benade wrote: ↑Tue Jul 05, 2022 6:26 pm Why would you run an old condensor? It may only last another 40 years.

Concour perfection.

Phil Planck wrote: ↑Mon Jul 04, 2022 8:32 am Jon
Good observation about rebuilt distributor. But I take just the word "rebuilt" with a grain of salt without further info. Your observation about cam location is great. Never considered that.

+1
"Rebuilt" is one of those indeterminate words, like "restored." It means different things to different people.

Send it to John Jenkins. ..................Jim.

And when you get it back make sure it comes with the measured advance curve compared to the workshop manual spec and the position of each of the four points opening. (0, 90, 180, 270 +/- 1 deg.)