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Maclab58 · 08-22-2015, 05:22 PM

A member of our club towed his 29 sedan to my shop thursday because he had trouble getting it started and keeping it running. He had replaced his original engine with a spare that he had due to excessive oil fouling in # 4 cylinder. He brought his Zenith to me a few weeks ago for a rebuild thinking that was the trouble. When I pulled it apart I found the Venturi was broken in half, that was a treat digging that out. I cleaned it out chased all the threads and replaced the necessary parts. That didn't help. With it now at my shop we went over this morning and I had him crank the engine. Immediately I noticed the distributor moving back-and-forth, the retaining bolt was loose. I remove the distributor cap and noticed the coil wire was very loose, fixed that. I tightened the bolt locking the distributor in place and reset the timing. That's when I noticed the gap between the end of the rotor and the metal contacts in the distributor body is at least 1/8 inch if not more. Comparing the existing rotor to a new one there was a significant difference. I replaced the distributor body, rotor and cap and wow what a change! Tommy took it out for a test drive and it ran great! Was a great A day! Thanks to Juan Salazar for passing along his knowledge! I guess I was payin attention!

08-22-2015, 05:22 PM	#1
Maclab58 Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Wichita Falls, Texas Posts: 983	Great Model A Day A member of our club towed his 29 sedan to my shop thursday because he had trouble getting it started and keeping it running. He had replaced his original engine with a spare that he had due to excessive oil fouling in # 4 cylinder. He brought his Zenith to me a few weeks ago for a rebuild thinking that was the trouble. When I pulled it apart I found the Venturi was broken in half, that was a treat digging that out. I cleaned it out chased all the threads and replaced the necessary parts. That didn't help. With it now at my shop we went over this morning and I had him crank the engine. Immediately I noticed the distributor moving back-and-forth, the retaining bolt was loose. I remove the distributor cap and noticed the coil wire was very loose, fixed that. I tightened the bolt locking the distributor in place and reset the timing. That's when I noticed the gap between the end of the rotor and the metal contacts in the distributor body is at least 1/8 inch if not more. Comparing the existing rotor to a new one there was a significant difference. I replaced the distributor body, rotor and cap and wow what a change! Tommy took it out for a test drive and it ran great! Was a great A day! Thanks to Juan Salazar for passing along his knowledge! I guess I was payin attention!