Helmet distributor an a 4 cylinder
 

I saw an old picture on The Hamb of a Model A with a helmet distributor on the top of the engine. It was mounted vertically with 2 plug wires protruding from each cap. Was this a common "upgrade"?

Re: Helmet distributor an a 4 cylinder
 

How about posting a link to the HAMB thread?

Thank you.

Re: Helmet distributor an a 4 cylinder
 

I have not learned how to do that Hoop.
The thread was on "Vintage shots from days gone by" page 24. It was posted by LowKat Jan 9, 2010.
Maybe another member with "skills" can do it.

Re: Helmet distributor an a 4 cylinder
 

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...one-by.428585/

Attachment 440379

Re: Helmet distributor an a 4 cylinder
 

Thanks Hoop. Does anyone have any info on this. I suppose someone made an adapter. Maybe the only one?

Re: Helmet distributor an a 4 cylinder
 

How would you time it ?

Re: Helmet distributor an a 4 cylinder
 

I don’t think it was a popular thing to do. and I’ve been around a bunch of model A Fords.
I have know of a few, very few, with Jeep distributors. Anything to get rid of the spark advance lever.
I’ve also seen them with a magneto mounted on the left side at the front.
If you used the lower part of the mode A distributor it shouldn’t be too hard to adapt a V8 distributor to it.

Re: Helmet distributor an a 4 cylinder
 

Don't know how you would adapt it, but the 30's and 40's Ford tractors had a front mounted distributor. It looked at least similar to a helmet cap dist. mechanical advance, if I remember right.

Al Hook

Re: Helmet distributor an a 4 cylinder
 

9N distributor. The one in the photo looks noting like the 2N, 9N, 8N distributor.

Re: Helmet distributor an a 4 cylinder
 

Why not use a Model B distributor to get rid of the Model A spark advance lever? They had centrifugal advance built in. No modifications required other than resetting the initial spark advance.

Re: Helmet distributor an a 4 cylinder
 

There is NO advantage to this other than having two sets of points for better coil charge,, Even then it's not needed.. As David states swamping to a "B" distributor would be a better solution.. One could even get a "B" distributor to advance like a 11A

My guess was they did it to get people talking... Obviously mission accomplished even 60 years later

I am more curious as to what kind of radiator they are running. They filled in the cap hole and seems like they did a good job at it

Re: Helmet distributor an a 4 cylinder
 

Fascinating to think about what was being tried back then. Note the carbs. Makes you wonder about how much the distributor was modified ... cam doesn't need 8 lobes, remove 4 ... plenty of dwell now available, get rid of one set of points.

B might make more sense, but a V8 distributor ....

Good to find little glimpses of the early stuff.

Re: Helmet distributor an a 4 cylinder
 

In all the owning and monkeying around with early Fords in my younger days I NEVER ran across a model B distributor . Never.
In fact I remember seeing a 32 V8 coupe once but don’t recall seeing a model B on the street, in a a junkyard or any other place. Only saw them in Hot Rod magazine.
I drove my ‘33 V8 and my friend drove a model A. We always knew a B distributor would be nice for his model because another friend told us so as he had Jeep distributor in his.
Even after I came to California in ‘66 I didn’t see many model B cars. They were very rare in the parts of the country had bad roads, snow and freezing weather and people that were broke because of the depression.

Re: Helmet distributor an a 4 cylinder
 

The v8 dist maybe an improvement if the vac brake was made operative,you could use only one set of points ,remove halve the lobes on the points cam,etc.
Mind you ,our 28ccpu has done maybe 80000miles with the stock A setup with no drama.
Lawrie

Re: Helmet distributor an a 4 cylinder
 

I have no idea what year this picture was taken. Looks like 1950's possibly. The newest car looks to be 1937? I still find it fascinating that some guy had an idea and figured out a way to make it work, even if it was no improvement. Most likely he thought it would and dared to try it. There are plenty of members, and I am thinking of Ol' Ron and others like him.
They are constantly trying to make something run better or make more horsepower. These are things that make this forum so interesting.

Re: Helmet distributor an a 4 cylinder
 

I second the motion that this early inventive stuff makes this forum very interesting.

Re: Helmet distributor an a 4 cylinder
 

I'm going to sat that's Pre-War by the hairsyles and clothing (1940).

It seems I have read or heard something about this. It may have been in a Vern Tardel book or maybe off the HAMB.

There was something about this. I'm sorry but I cant recall.

Re: Helmet distributor an a 4 cylinder
 

"How would you time it ?"

Nobody answered this. Actually, once you figure out how to adapt the distributor to the Model A, timing would be pretty easy. Just a matter of experimenting to find out what advances worked best. The Model A has such a huge range of settings for timing.

Funny if someone thought that because it was a helmet (or crab) that it could only be timed on a Sun machine.

Re: Helmet distributor an a 4 cylinder
 

i believe thats an old photo from life magazine. i'd guess the kid was doing the poor mans dual points, wishing for a mallory or kong or summer brothers type of hotrod stuff, but spent all his money on the grill shell and dual carbs. still saving for a windshield. looks like they are enjoying life, hope the kids do now