KendallP wrote:
Checked the vacuum advance with some negative lung pressure. Got it to come out quite a ways. Then it snapped right back once I let off. Seems ok.
OK. I torqued on the distributor gear. Had channel locks on the upper portion of the shaft... underneath the mechanical advance.
Didn't put 700 ft lbs on it or whatever, but a fair amount. Then I got a little paranoid that I was stressing the mechanical advance. Is that correct? Are those little weights the only things keeping the shaft from reversing? If not... then what is?
Clearly the shaft is not a single piece between the gear and the upper portion that's below the mechanical advance/rotor connection. Turning the rotor against the springs will also turn the upper, visible portion of the shaft, but not the gear down below. Was not expecting that.
The main shaft from the gear continues all the way up to the top to a T-shaped plate. Below that top plate is a sleeve & plate that the rotor ultimately mounts to. The mechanical advance works by skewing the timing between the top T-place (main shaft) and the rotor mount "sleeve" which also contains the ignition timing wheel. You were probably grabbing the shaft between the timing wheel and rotor mount (the rusty part in the picture below).
So when you say you can turn the rotor and watch the upper portion (what I called the "sleeve") that makes sense. I assume you mean you only turned it a little ways (~20 degrees?) I'm confused why you weren't expecting that, unless you mean you can keep turning the rotor round and round without the lower gear turning?
