[36tbird]

Holy Cow, Ron! How did you make that timing gear cover?

59, read up on some of Bubba's experiences with the Mallory's. Maybe those are flathead Mallory's he reported on, but I don't think he got very good numbers with them.

It is one crappy day here is S. Texas, so I went out to take pics because I doubt I will get much else done. Here is one of my prototype tensioner bracket. There will actually be two of these sandwiching a 1/4" bar so that it holds the pulley and pivots on the upper bolt. Obviously, the adjustment slit is not cut between the bottom holes. I made this up just to check my dimensions.

I am really proud of this bracket because of the design process I went through. First I made a cardboard template. I took those to my computer and designed the thing in AutoCad. I just completed a class in adult education to learn the basics. I was able to print a 1 to 1 rendition of the bracket which I taped to my metal piece and cut it all out. When you dimension the design it gives you the center points of circles so I could punch those holes and drill them directly.

I am hoping that I can find someone with a CNC plasma cutter and use my design to make me a few identical brackets that look pro.

In the pictures, you can see the shoulder I machined on the distributor shaft to sit on the installation hole so that it keeps the same dimension for either a 59A or 8BA. I used Bubba's dimensions for the Chevy shafts that he posted a couple of years back on the HAMB. I had to turn the shafts down to .875" and put on a 1.5" sleeve in order to get the shoulder. I plan on sending my housings to Bubba for him to do his magic. I hope he doesn't gag on my machine work. Given that I know enough to be dangerous on the lathe and that my lathe is an 1899 vintage Star, my tolerance acumen is questionable.