GTOguy

Hello....as some of you know, I've been working on a '61 that I got in April that has been out of service for about 25 years. It's up and running and driving, and I've been working on it steadily. The PO was converting it to a fuelie car, so it had a tach drive fuelie distributor in it. I changed it over to a '70 Corvette tach drive distributor, which I rebuilt. I wanted a vacuum advance, and didn't see the need for running the FI unit with two out-drives. The 'new' distributor works just fine, but the original '61 tach cable won't connect. It has an offset blade drive, and needs a slotted drive to connect. The '70 tach drive is smaller in I.D, and does not have the slot. Question: is there an adapter for this application? Or do I need to change the cable to a newer style. And, if I do change out the cable, will it be compatible with my old tach? Or is there an output gear available to retrofit the '70 distributor so that I can run my original cable? Any help much appreciated, as usual!
Jeff

wmf62

, first, there is nothing wrong with using the FI distributor without the FI, just make sure you use the oil supply to the distributor; but, unless it's a C2 FI distributor, there is no vacuum advance....

IF, the present cable fits into the tach head (I presume it is a square end...), then I suggest you find a speedometer shop and get them to make a cable & housing that has the right cable ends for the tach and the distributor and has the right screw-on connector for the tach and the distributor.

OR, get a C2 non FI tach drive distributor...

piece of cake...
Bill

GTOguy

Thanks for the reply. I was unaware that C2 and C3 tach drives used different cable ends. The car runs a LOT better with the new distributor.....a lot sharper throttle response and more power in the mid range. I really like vacuum advance on a street driven car. I went out of my way to score a good core to rebuild, and am bummed that a '70 distributor has a different cable drive than a '63--'67. Thanks again.

62corvette

All you have to do is go to your local parts store, buy the shortest speedo cable they have (without housing). Size it to the same length as the one you took out. Probably $7-8.