Howdy! I’m back with a little more. My Al Knoch interior order won’t ship for three more weeks or so. As a result, I’m doing odd jobs on the Corvette. But let’s back up for a bit:
I should have posted these earlier and then a question came up previously on ignition parts. I’ll share my observations. You’re free to disagree, but before you do, buy the respective pieces and compare them for yourself….
First picture: Jobber rotor for a Delco distributor on the right. ACCEL rotor for the same distributor on the left. The jobber rotor is junk plastic. The ACCEL rotor is an alkyd material. Note the blade. It’s far longer than the jobber piece. It’s screwed in place. Not so with the jobber part. The ACCEL arc ribs are deeper and wider. Plus, it’s way heavier.
Second picture: MSD cap on the left. ACCEL cap in the center. Delco cap on the right. All three for Delco distributors. MSD caps are manufactured from DuPont Rynite material. The ACCEL cap is manufactured from Alkyd. I use ACCEL or MSD caps and nothing else.
Third picture: Flip them over. The MSD and ACCEL caps use brass posts (the alloy on the MSD cap appears to be different). Yes, aluminum may initially be a better conductor, but it tends to erode quickly especially when high spark voltage enters the equation.
Fourth & Fifth pictures. Note the contact button in the Delco cap. Note the contact button in the ACCEL cap (second image here). It’s much beefier than the Delco button. Some caps use a carbon button. The ACCEL piece is brass. The contact spring is also stronger.
Sixth picture: I’ll just lay this out here and you can decide. Popular (Very Popular) BlueStreak point set on the left. ACCEL point set on the right. FYI, I always use ACCEL points.
Once again, I won’t argue with anyone over this. But…the ACCEL points are much more robust. Simply buy the pieces, compare them and make your own decisions.
Back to the Corvette:
Since I’m waiting on parts, I decided to bench test the lamps and electrical gauges in my Corvette cluster(s). I figured it was way better to do this now rather than try and chase down an issue when it’s all buttoned up.
Eureka! The dash lights all work! The gauges work. Even the rebuilt clock ticks like it should. I’m pleased.
I’m in the process of re-restoring the center cluster. I painted it again (and again, and again…L-O-L). I’m finally ok with it. I just have to reassemble it …carefully.
And this brings me to two steps forward and one step back. When I took the distributor out of the car, I found the tach drive bronze coupling was installed loosely….very loosely. Additionally, the distributor had a ton of end clearance (lower gear), which I fixed. During the distributor rebuild-recurve I also discovered the cross-drive gear thrust button was worn pretty badly. When I assembled everything, and lightly tightened the tach drive coupling, the cross-drive gear bound up and the shaft would not turn. A new button arrived this week and I installed it. Unfortunately, zero improvement. To me at least, it seems like the cross-drive gear is engaging too deep. I guess I could drill and tap the distributor housing and use as set screw to establish the clearance (thrust clearance) but I’m hoping to find a better solution. Perhaps my drive gear or the coupling is buggered up? Or maybe both are?
Ideas Please?
