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Bruce Lancaster · 12-15-2016, 11:48 AM

"ok so my 41 mercury has a 59ab motor in it. with an early style dist. I was planning on going to the newer style. basically the exact opposite of the op. I thought it was a bolt in deal?"

Depends on what cam is in the motor...and what adaptation you make.
Early distributor and front cover match up to a '39-41 cam OR to the '42-48 cam with a little adapter button to make it slightly longer. Remove the distributor and see if you can pull the front bit off of the cam with pliers!
To go to late distributor, either use an adapter plate on old front cover that adapts to 2 bolt pattern AND spaces out distributor for the long cam setup...
OR if you have the short cam in there, remove the adapter button and swap on '42-48 front cover.

12-15-2016, 11:48 AM	#12
Bruce Lancaster Member Emeritus Join Date: May 2010 Location: Madison, NJ Posts: 5,230	Re: Questions about 1941 distributors. "ok so my 41 mercury has a 59ab motor in it. with an early style dist. I was planning on going to the newer style. basically the exact opposite of the op. I thought it was a bolt in deal?" Depends on what cam is in the motor...and what adaptation you make. Early distributor and front cover match up to a '39-41 cam OR to the '42-48 cam with a little adapter button to make it slightly longer. Remove the distributor and see if you can pull the front bit off of the cam with pliers! To go to late distributor, either use an adapter plate on old front cover that adapts to 2 bolt pattern AND spaces out distributor for the long cam setup... OR if you have the short cam in there, remove the adapter button and swap on '42-48 front cover.