Feeling Crabby …

[Admiral]

I desperately need some help getting a crab-style distributor setup correctly. The one I’ve got on the car right now works perfectly. The engine starts in half a turn, idles flawlessly and has plenty of smooth power out on the road. I set this one up myself using feeler gauges to set the points’ gaps.

I’ve been trying to get another crab distributor put together to keep in the trunk, one that’s tested and ready to go should I ever need it. However, for the life of me I cannot get another one of these units to work properly!!!

So far I’ve tested three different distributor bodies, two different shaft assemblies and three or four different sets of points. Carefully setting everything up, I can’t get them to work as well as the one on the car. Overall I’ve had a rebuilt distributor on and off the engine AT LEAST 25 times, which is not easy given how cramped things are.

The latest one I setup is a really nice iron unit I bought not long ago (see picture). I tore it apart, cleaned everything and put new points in. It’s in such good shape I didn’t even bother painting the housing. The lobes are beautiful, the advance weights move freely and the springs aren’t bent; even the backer plate is immaculate. I set the gaps at a perfect 0.016” with a feeler gauge, ensured the initial advance was OK and then installed it on the car.

With this distributor bolted up the engine starts perfectly and idles smoothly but, BUT – as with the other ones I’ve rebuilt – when you drive it the engine sputters/flutters. Cruising at an even 55 MPH it will flutter every few seconds. Other times it will buck and kick at random times and speeds. It’s absolutely maddening.

I’ve experimented with advancing and retarding the timing, I’ve fiddled with the vacuum brake, I’ve done everything I can think of and now I'm TOTALLY out of ideas. As a control I’ve even been using the same rotor, cap and condenser so those variables are out of play.

My car is 12-volts and has a Petronix Flame Thrower coil on it.

Sorry for the long post but what am I doing wrong? I’m ripping my hair out in bloody clumps at this point. Perhaps the next step is to send a core out to Bubba ...



Thanks in advance ….

- Craig