spark advance lever
 

New to model A. I have a 30 Tudor. I am reading about the 10-11 "notches" that are felt when moving the spark advance lever on the steering column. I do not feel any "notching"; just smooth movement.

I am assuming there are nubbins that have been worn away over the years. Where would these "nubbins" be located?

Steering column? Engine side of firewall where spark advance lever links to the mechancm going to carburetor?

Just curious. Not sure if this a necessary feature

Re: spark advance lever
 

the piece your refering to is below the stering wheel. it the piece that stops the lever from going all the way up and all the way down.

Re: spark advance lever
 

There would be notches or grooves in the plate the lever slides on.....


you can see that mine are almost totally worn away...my lever's operation is also "smooth"!

Re: spark advance lever
 

My 28 is also worn smooth, but the levers are snug enough to stay where I put them, so until I restore the car it's no big deal. When I restore the notches, I'll use a slightly dull chisel to push the metal back to form notches. I'd rather move the metal, than remove the metal by using a file.

Re: spark advance lever
 

I suppose the back side of the lever would have had a raised area or ridge....

My lever also stays where I put it so for now it's just fine.

Re: spark advance lever
 

The lever is simply the round shaft with no added raised area. I bought a pair of nickel rods from Brattons, for a customer about 20 years ago, and they were excellent in looks and fit.:)

Re: spark advance lever
 

File the notches, drill an indentation on the underside of lever and jb weld in a ball bearing.

Re: spark advance lever
 

I wouldn't worry about feeling notches. On the spark lever, i don't feel notches are important. The spark advance is not spring loaded, and as those levers age, they get harder and harder to move under our force, let alone vibration. I would leave it alone unless you're going to fully disassemble the column like i just did and install new springs and levers. I find having the column sandblasted and powder coated improves the notches anyway. I can now feel them again on my column.

We often talk about where to put the lever with fractions, rather tahn notches. You'll hear "put the spark all the way up to start, pull it to 3/4 of the way down for open road" stuff like that, granted the values are different from driver to driver.