[51woodie]

I started to change the points on a spare distributor for my '46, and the copper strap connecting one of the point sets to the contact piece that makes the connection to the lug on the outside of the distributor body broke. What to do? Order a part from the USA? Shipping and duty costs to Canada is almost as much as it is to buy a whole distributor. Same problem our Ford friends in Aus. and NZ have to deal with. The solution? I took the copper connector off an old set of points, cut to the proper length and drilled three hole in the correct location. Drilled the rivet holding the contact piece on the point plate, and confirmed the way it was insulated form the point plate. Unsoldered the old strap, and soldered the new strap in place. The hole through the point plate had an insulating "tube" in it to keep the rivet from shorting between the plate and contact, which I replaced with plastic tubing, and the "brown paper" between the point plate and the contact was replaced with gasket material. I used a "POP" rivet to connect the pieces, and it looks good. I used the ohmmeter to check for continuity, and it is clear. I guess you could call this a poor mans repair, or someone desperate for something to do cooped up in the house, instead of out in the coupe.