The New Project: Part Deux!

[njsteve]

The cap is more of a fixture for holding the wire "octopus" and has no internal termainals for the spark plug leads. It has a spring that sits on the top coil terminal and a spring loaded carbon button that is inserted into the center of the bottom of the cap. (the cap on the eft is cracked and missing the carbon button).





The coil pack sits on top of the wire "octopus" and two long screws go through the coil pack, then the wire set and cap and into the distributor base.

[njsteve]

And here is the notorious wire set. The eight spark plug wires are permanently molded into the center ring. If there was a problem with one wire...you had a problem with the whole set and had to replace it as a unit. Big $$$



Here is a chopped up center ring.



There is a way to split the center seam of the molded rubber ring with a razor and insert a regular wire set into the terminals. I will be trying that just to see if it will work. Others have done this with good results in the past.

[njsteve]

Using the original 1972 service manual, I went through the diagnosis and testing procedures with an ohm-meter as described in the manual. All three distributors, modules and coils packs tested out fine. The common problem with these distributors was overheating the coil pack and melting the windings until it shorted out. If the coil windings were going, then the module was overworked and failed as well. This usually all happened without warning.

I have a pile of original repair work orders from London Motor Products, the dealer that sold the car new. There are multiple work orders for replacing the distributor or coil pack or some other no-start condition.

[njsteve]

Here's the internal module:

[njsteve]

Performed an autopsy on the chopped up spark plug octopus (calimari?)

I initially tried using a hot knife but then just switched to a razor blade. I sliced the seam and then used a combination of Angry Old Man Strength and the razor to peel the top section away. It looks like the factory assembled these units with some type of weatherstrip adhesive/rubber cement. Definitely some tough stuff.



After slicing and fileting the top off, here is what appeared:



It is a pretty simple design. The wires have a terminal end with a tip that resembles a Chevy bowtie. The Bowtie inserts through the eight rectangular slots and is preset into the correct position around the circle.



Here is a close up of the "Bowtie". It can rotate 360 degrees to any position. There are two styles, 6 of the end-mounted tips and 2 of the side mounted tips. Each wire is stenciled with the number of the cylinder it goes to: 1,3,5, and 7 on one side and 2,4,6 and 8 on the other, preset in the 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 firing order.



And here is the base with all 8 wires withdrawn. Looks like a reasonably easy swap of the terminal ends onto another set of wires and then reseal the top with a suitable adhesive.



I will update once the replacement donor wires arrive.

[njsteve]

I spent some time last night soaking the intact set of wires in some purple stuff and them scrubbed them in soapy hot water. They looked pretty good. No cuts or slices anywhere. I was able to pull the spark plug wire boots back to see the spark plug terminals. Now I see why they tossed this wire set. Almost all of the spark plug leads were broken and/or replaced. The original end is a 135 degree bent end. I ordered some replacement terminals from Taylor Wire and will replace them all.

The funny thing was that all I could find was 45 degree terminals...that was until I figured out that one manufacturer's 45 degrees is another manufacturer's 135 degrees. Add 135 and 45 and you get 180. :-)







You can see the silk screened numbers and "Packard TVR Suppression 1Q-73"

[jannes_z-28]

From the one you cut apart you could probably make molds off and start fabricating new ones.

Looks like it would be simple to do.


Always interesting to read about your work with details.


Jan

[njsteve]

Just got back from my Tuesday night body shop class at the local polytech high school. My ongoing project is the Formula.

As you may know from following this thread, the car had NOS GM quarters put on it back in the 1980s, when they were still available. Unfortunately, at the time, the trunk drop offs were not available and the body guy did an amazing (though completely incorrect) hand-made version of drop offs. He used the existing trunk portion and then hand-made a flat panel and brazed it to the edges of the inner quarter.

Now that the aftermarket has finally come out with the reproduction trunk drop offs, I decided to replace the hand-made ones myself. (after I got an crazy estimate of several thousand dollars per side to replace them at resto shop).

The wonderful thing about this polytech adult education course is that you pay $400 for 12 weeks (every Tuesday night) and you get to use all their tools and expertise of a professional body man who is teaching the course. It is an amazing time!

Here is the before shot of the handmade boilerplate inner quarter:



And after I used a cutting wheel to remove the major section and then a grinder to grind the edge of the brazing off, where it mated to the outer edge of the quarter panel.



Since the far end of the hand made panel was properly welded and mated to the inner quarter structure and matched the flat section of the new repro dropoff exactly, I left that in place and then made mounting flanges from a two-inch section of the prior hand-made drop off.



Instead of drilling and welding the dropoff in, we decided to use what a lot of modern body shops are using these days: structural panel adhesive. This stuff is amazing. It seals the bare metal and provides corrosion protection between the panels as it bonds them together with an adhesive that is stronger than the steel itself.