<VV> Smitty's Distributor

[vairologist at juno.com]

Smitty says:  I have been informed by several that freeloaders are just
like people.  That they have hopes and dreams and feelings just like
people.  Well OK then I will finish my facinating story about the
perpetual miss when changing throttle positions.  Not a miss really, it
just shuts off for a second.  A lot of things on our cars I don't
question the value of because I figure for the most part GM knew what
they were doing.  So I have always run one of the dust shields inside my
distributor caps.  What I noticed was that when I pushed the rotor on it
had to shift the shield sideways a little to go in.  Not only that but
when the rotor was in, the screw holes in the shield still didn't quite
line up.  So I had to find out why.  The one-size-fits-all condenser was
contacting the shield at the bulge which is there to provide straight
access to the screws.  Not only that but closer exam showed that the
condensor pigtail was also trying to displace the shield.  So that caused
the points plate to hang up and flop from place to place rather than
moving smoothly.  I checked around but all I had was the long
one-size-fits-all condensors on the shelf.  I ended up bending the tang
down that is on the points plate which is there to keep the condenser
from being moved too close to the adjustable frame of the points.  So
finally after some careful positioning of parts and wire I got things so
the movement of the points plate no longer rubbed on the shield when the
vac adv actuated.  I know a great many people don't bother with the dust
shield and may never experience such a problem.
        Why did I not find that earlier?  Several things.  When
troubleshooting I replaced the o,s.f.a. condenser with another o.s.f.a.
condenser so the tang positioned it in exactly the same place.  Also when
troubleshootng I was looking for a problem.  One does not look for
distributor problems with the cap on.  They take the cap off and examine
things inside, including cycling the vac adv with a vac pump.  Everything
appeared normal and worked normal with the cap off.
        I do not advocate just anyone bending the tang out of the way
because that does open the door for problems if the condenser gets
against the points.  I do not know if the condensers sold by our vendors
are like Corvair OEM or of the o.s.f.a. variety.   So there.