Broken dizzy?

NateL

Member
I took my 1725 commer out for a midwinter maintenance trip , and it sputtered to a stop. I was 100% certain it a
was the condenser. Lucky, i had my tools and a spare. Well things got bleak as the condenser hold down screw fell in the distributor body. Right, so now later, i have things back together and no spark. Turning over but i can tell nothing in the plugs. Go back ,look at distributor and its just free to turn in the block.. Is the distributor shaft keyed? What did i break?
 
the condenser hold down screw fell in the distributor body
Ditto and I had to remove the holding plate to fish it out. At least you get to check the weights and springs below are present and correct.

Turning distributor sounds like the bolted clamp below the body isn't tight enough, maybe moving the ignition timing out. That could explain the spluttering stop.
 
Just remember the dizzy drive is slightly off-set so it will only go back in one way, sometimes it is a bit of a pain to line it back up.
 
Can someone post a pic of the hold down assembly? I may have this wrong. Headed down to the garage now to try and figure it out
 
Remove the dizzy and see if the drive is turning in the engine when cranked over. If not oil pump drive has sheared, has happened before.
 
Haven't got a picture but the plate that holds the dizzy to the block should have one one bolt holding it to the block and a pinch bolt that stops the dizzy from turning. If all of this is still in place, and the dizzy is firmly pushed down and engaged with slot in the drive, then as Martin says it could be the split pin in the dizzy spindle that has sheared.
 
AHA! so it turns out the person who installed the distributor used an o-ring that was too thick to allow the distributor to seat fully, the clamp marks were by the very bottom of the clamping surface.it finally just popped out of the clamp .I ended up putting a pertronix plate in there , i've had it for awhile, figured i would try it out, and so far i really like it.
 
That's something to beware of then, glad you got it sorted out. Good luck with the Pertronix:)
 
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Excellent, well done for sorting that one out:) These little victories can be so satisfying
 
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