The Ford Barn

slopokpete · 01-01-2026, 07:45 PM

I am in the process of swapping engines (both 59AB) in my early 1947 Ford. This is fairly original car with a lot of miles on the odometer.
Several years ago I had the distributer from my original engine rebuilt and a Pertronix installed.
It is the crab style with a one piece cap with the wires coming out the side of the cap.
My donor engine (from a 46 or 47) was also from a fairly original car with much lower miles.
This engine has the two piece cap style distributer.
My plan was to just swap distributers. These are both two bolt distributors.
Here's the reason for this post.
The back of the distributers are different. The crab distributor extends farther and the end of the cam is farther in from the face of the cover. You can see the difference in the depth of the distributers when holding them side by side.
So is there a solution that will allow me to swap these?

Thanks

01-01-2026, 07:45 PM	#1
slopokpete Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Ridgefield, WA Posts: 17	59AB Distributer Confusion I am in the process of swapping engines (both 59AB) in my early 1947 Ford. This is fairly original car with a lot of miles on the odometer. Several years ago I had the distributer from my original engine rebuilt and a Pertronix installed. It is the crab style with a one piece cap with the wires coming out the side of the cap. My donor engine (from a 46 or 47) was also from a fairly original car with much lower miles. This engine has the two piece cap style distributer. My plan was to just swap distributers. These are both two bolt distributors. Here's the reason for this post. The back of the distributers are different. The crab distributor extends farther and the end of the cam is farther in from the face of the cover. You can see the difference in the depth of the distributers when holding them side by side. So is there a solution that will allow me to swap these? Thanks