I have a 73 with the original distributer. I remember my dad many years ago pulling off the vacuum line from the carb and sucking on it to check the vacuum advance. My car shutters when it's loaded up and I'm thinking it might be the vaccum advance. I did what my dad did and saw no movement in the points. I have a new vacuum advance on order. Any pointers on how to replace?

 

theres a couple of things that come to mind.....first make sure that the shaft that the weights are on in the distributor will move freely.....these often get gummed up.

swapping the vacuum advance is pretty straight forward and you do not have to take out the distributor to do it just a couple of screws hold it in place

 

Thanks. now I have to find one...

 

Email Lars for his paper - he includes P/Ns for Echlin (NAPA) parts

 

Read the sticky in this forum titled "Info On Timing; Long Post" before you do anything. Make sure you have the correct vacuum can for your engine (there are links in the sticky post to more information).

Do you have a timing light? Dwell meter?

I just re-curved my dist according to instructions and advice on the Forum, and replaced my vac advance. It's not at all complicated, but to do it right you need a dwell meter, timing light, and a vacuum gauge. Amazon has a decent dwell meter on sale for $30 with free shipping; you can get a vacuum guage there as well or Harbor Freight has a nice one that's cheap. Summit Racing has a dial-back timing light for $55 bucks (trust me--spend the extra $$ for an adjustable timing light).

My timing was set at the book spec for an 1968 A.I.R. pump engine (4 deg BTDC) I was hooked up to ported vacuum--which really didn't matter because my vacuum advance wasn't working at all. Now I'm at 16 deg initial, 35 total, and 32/51 with the vacuum advance hooked up to manifold vacuum. To say the car runs better--and COOLER--is an understatement.

One thing that's not abundantly clear in the sticky on timing is that you likely have an unused, plugged manifold vacuum nipple on your carb. Switching from ported to manifold vacuum is as easy as swapping the hose and plug between the two ports!

Good luck

 

Great advice, thanks!

 

i can see the vacum gauge and timing light but where does the dwell meter come into play?

 

Setting the dwell to 30 deg is your first step, before setting timing. It affects everything else.

 

yup!