Hello all - I would appreciate some guidance from your experience base. I have a '68 Autostick with single vacuum advance distributor. This problem started when the weather got cold. When it's warmed up and I rev it from idle, it will often stay revved up, which I discovered is due to the timing staying advanced the full amount (even when the throttle is back to idle). When the timing finally retards, it will come back down to idle so quickly the car nearly stalls. I can pull off the vacuum hose to the dizzy when it's advanced with no effect. When driving, the load from the tranny from slowing down will pull the engine rpm down. Then I'll get some detonation in the exhaust when I accelerate the next time. Is this due to a sticking centrifugal advance buried in the distributor under the points plate? If so, how do you get to that part of the distributor under the points plate? At the bottom of the dizzy, there is a pin holding the keyed interface to the shaft, but I have been unable to press or drive that pin out. If it came out, then it seems the whole guts would come out from the top. Thanks, Bob
Bob,
Certainly sounds like you have either a stuck ball (ie too much crap) on your advance plate, or your advance mechanism is rustfreezing itself (lack of lube). Give it the once over and clean and lube EVERYTHING with the correct stuff. Like - engine oil, Bosch distributor grease & some bits of wheel bearing grease. Drop down to DIY and you can have a look at my distributor rebuild on a DVDA. Yours, being an SVDA will be similar. Hot tip - keep your advance weights/springs/advance oientation the same so re-assembly will not produce strange results.
Another thing that'll drive timing efforts to distraction will be if your distributor endplay is toward millimeter territory.
HTH
Volkenstein.
Thanks for your suggestions. I'll look into them this weekend and report back. Bob
Well. A lot of work for no gain. The end play was way out. The points plate had some light corrosion and no lube; it was hanging up. The plastic piece that fits under the advance weights was disintegrated on one side. I got an overhaul kit from Randy from European Parts as noted in your overhaul instructions (it's $38.50 with shipping now). Put it all back together per your excellent o/h instructions and it is still doing the same thing: it idles just fine and then starts revving up because the timing is advancing (timing goes up 25deg.). It does it whether the vacuum line is attached or not. It will come down if there is a load on the engine (put it in gear) or if I loosen the dizzy and turn it toward retard; if I do this, I have to be ready to get it back to normal quickly. Either way, when it does finally settle down, it slows so much it nearly stalls if I don't hit the gas. Then it idels fine until it does it again. I would sure appreciate more suggestions, because this is a mystery. Will the autostick use a dizzy off of a manual? Thanks, Bob
So I went back to basics and o/h'd the carb. Found a good bit of dirt in the bowl. After getting it all back together, it ran like new and the advanced behaved. Now I have an overhauled carb and distributor and a car that runs right, which is good, because the Subaru died yesterday. The bug will never die! Thanks for your help. Bob