Distributor Drives

[Martin Benade]

Each engine had a pair of R or L distributors, not one of each?

[Jacques Lefriant]

Yes Martin
but you could put one of each if you had one fwd and one aft.
j

[Alan Klingen 2]

Be sure the number one post on each distributror cap is pointing at eachg other. Alan The Stable.

[Jacques Lefriant]

Hi Alain
that is true for the 90* drive for the 60* they point aft.
j

[Harlan Halsey]

And why is that Alan and Jacques?
For the curious, it is because each distributer fires 2 plugs on each side of the engine. This is so that if one coil fails the engine will continue to run on all 4 cylinders. You can choose which plugs, fore or aft, which distributer fires. The wire position chosen for each distributer makes the wire bundle a very little simpler with the recommended distributer orientation and probably simplified service back in the day. I choose to have one distributer fire the forward plugs and the other the rear plugs. Orienting the distributers so that the points wire runs as nearly directly aft as possible on a Carrera also helps.

[Alan Klingen 2]

You should not have any of this distributor vibration Stuff as there is a fiber oil pad always pressing on on the points shaft. Alan The Stable.

[Martin Benade]

What vibration are you referring to? An oiled felt pad would squash that?

[Scott Schneider]

Harlan,

You may want to reach out to Rainer Cooney. I know he has come up with a very slick crank fired system. He retains the distributors for reasons of appearance and uses a hall sensor on the flywheel. He will have to give you all the specific details on what he does, but it is very impressive.

Scott

[Jacques Lefriant]

Hi Harlan
i thought that one distributor fired the inner plugs and the other the outer plugs.
j

[Rainer Cooney]

Trying to get a 547 with cam drive distributors to fire accurately and consistently is an exercise in frustration that I avoid with a crank fire ignition I made several years back. The only change in original parts is a pair of 1/16" holes in the flywheel for two magnets. The pick-up is mounted on a crankcase bolt and is adjustable to obtain the proper clearance. I also make original type distributors with tags etc. so the original ( worn out units ) can be boxed. The Bosch blue coils emit too much emi for the ignition control unit so I've developed a system to gut the dated large case coils on my lathe and install some MSD Blaster coils, then re-seal them with the original tops. The end result is perfect timing that's adjustable every 250 rpm and also includes a rev limiter.

[Martin Benade]

I’ve never seen painted brackets on blue coils. Some were supplied that way?

[Harlan Halsey]

Obviously, today crank fire is the way to go, and Rainer, as usual, has done a beautiful job of it. My approach is usually to fix what is wrong first, before exploring alternatives. So I repaired the worn out distributer:

Removing the old drive pins proved more difficult than I anticipated. Pressing the pins out proved unsuccessful. The thing-a-ma-bob that does the job is a carbide 4.5mm end mill. The weight was just welded up and the slot milled. McMaster Carr has 5.5mm knock out pins, the one I chose is Rockwell 64 hard.

The resulting advance curve with new springs and readjusted spring plate shows that the cam could use some work as well. One can retard the advanced lobes with careful polishing.

This is the companion distributer which wasn't badly worn.
Rainer Coney's photo above shows how the coil was attached. The rotor and cap still need a solution.

[Alan Hall]

I’ve never seen painted brackets on blue coils. Some were supplied that way?

Original TK6A5 blue coils used on Carreras (also TK6A4 blue coils) all had the brackets painted blue. Later, small diameter, blue coils had plated brackets.

[Martin Benade]

They look odd to me but I figured if Ranier did those they must be correct. Just had to ask.

[Alan Klingen 2]

Be sure when you put the distributors back in that both the number one poles on the caps are looking at each other. Alan The Stable.