[Spirit of '57]

Hello! Ive got an HEI distributor giving me trouble. Ive got the stiffest springs in i could find, but its giving me over half the mechanical advance at idle. I know this because i took out the weights and got 2 degrees initial at idle. I then put the weights back in and got 20 initial, 29 total. This is all with the vacuum disconnected of course. I tried grinding my weights to make them lighter even, and ive cleaned all the surfaces. Any ideas?

 

[Rustaddict]

Are you sure that everything is clean and sliding freely? Those things can get rusty and stick.

 

[Greg's 56 Nomad]

If you don't want to spend a lot of time trying to troubleshoot this, you won't find a better price on a new Accel HEI distributor than what Holley Performance sells on eBay.
You would just need to use the coil & coil cover from your old HEI cap.

New Accel Chevy Billet HEI Performance Distributor.

I ordered this HEI off of eBay late last week and it arrived this week. It looks like the same distributor that is listed @ Summit Racing can be purchased for a lot less from this eBay seller. In case anyone is interested. Summit Racing. eBay seller holleypreformance.

www.trifive.com

New Accel HEI from Holley Performance on eBay.

 

[mw1955]

Maybe little bushing under the weights that fits in slot is to big and advancing to quick.

 

[Spirit of '57]

Everythings snaps back into place easily when i move it, so i woukd think its clean? The bushings under the weights being too big? What? I thought of getting a new distributor, but id really rather just put my mind to it and figure out this one

 

[Rick_L]

HEI distributors are notorious for wearing the pins and holes in all the centrifugal advance parts. I can see that in the photo the mechanism isn't returning to zero. There is only a bushing in one spot, and some don't even have that. But if the pins are worn, you're screwed anyway. Two of the 4 pins can't be replaced unless you take the distributor apart and replace the top plate that is welded to the main shaft.

 

[Spirit of '57]

The outer weights do have bushings, i found ones at the hardware store that are a little loose, but there. The center is at the end of its travel, and when i took the weights off and ran it to test it was at 2 degrees initial so id think it would return?