Aluminium Winfield Head

[Bick in New Zealand]

I have just pulled the winfield head off my coupe after stripping the distributor locking bolt. When I look closely there is very lttle meat in this area, and being aluminium what is there is very soft and therefore will always be a liability. Has anyone else out there encountered this problem and come up with a permanent solution?

[J Franklin]

Heilicoil insert?

[Tom Wesenberg]

I also think heilicoil would be best.
My motorcyle has the rear view mirror screwed into the aluminum clutch hand grip and when the threads stipped I used a Permatex thread restore product, which worked fine.

[quickchange]

Justin, pos thread too larger size, Use course thread in alloy ,Once screw is tight then lock the nut, Always use two piece dissy shaft as one piece could cause the body to vibrate, have a head at home the dissy had been knocked clean out in race care, its had a brass sleve in the hole giving plenty of meat for lock screw, Just in palmy on way back home, Need you to be chief at next meet as judging was not up to scratch , nor p giving ???

[Bick in New Zealand]

Originally Posted by quickchange

Justin, pos thread too larger size, Use course thread in alloy ,Once screw is tight then lock the nut, Always use two piece dissy shaft as one piece could cause the body to vibrate, have a head at home the dissy had been knocked clean out in race care, its had a brass sleve in the hole giving plenty of meat for lock screw, Just in palmy on way back home, Need you to be chief at next meet as judging was not up to scratch , nor p giving ???

I will give you a ring, once you get home and have a catch up. I was definitely thinking course thread, also considering welding a piece of aluminium to add a bit of beef to it.

[Pete]

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If you can't get at least 4 good threads I would build it up a bit with weld and finish with a Helicoil or Threadsert.

[30Ford]

Tap it out to the next size...should work

[Jim Brierley]

I have drilled and tapped for 1/4" pipe, screwed and JB'd a reducing bushing to 1/8" pipe and tapped that to 3/8 N.F. thread. I do it in a mill to keep everything straight but you could do it with the head still on the car. It worked for me! Hope you guys down there have real sizes and not Metric! :-)

[Bick in New Zealand]

Hopefully have it all under control now. Part of the problem was the slot on the body of the distributor was not wide enough to allow full contact by the screw, the Winfield head must be be slightly thinner than the standard A head. We are going with a helicoil at this stage and see how it goes.

[just plain bill]

Originally Posted by Bick in New Zealand

I have just pulled the winfield head off my coupe after stripping the distributor locking bolt. When I look closely there is very lttle meat in this area, and being aluminium what is there is very soft and therefore will always be a liability. Has anyone else out there encountered this problem and come up with a permanent solution?

Can you see the wire around the lock nut? I ended up with a 1/2" helicoil and all it does is hold the distributor down but the casting is very soft. Next move is to weld and remachine. I'm going back to cast iron!