1927 Nash Advanced Six distributor shaft problem

[Guest Hockeye]

Good Evening folks!

One of my prettiest cars, a 1927 Nash Advanced Six 4dr sedan with trunk, has had an annoying problem: uneven running. My wizard mechanic has come up with it, I think.

He spent 18 years with Caterpillar working on big diesel engines and had never seen these early cars until I prevailed upon him to come over and look. He had no idea what sort of machine a Model T Ford was, for example, and has done little work on gasoline engines. Well..... You should have seen him with my 1913 Overland! Sucked in, he is.

Anyway, the shaft of the dirtributor wobbles around, sending the rotor bunping into the cap on two contacts on one side, and almost completely missing the two on the other side. Bushing, he said. "OK", I said, how do we do this?

He said it shouldn't be too hard, but he tends to toy with me.

He also said that we could install electronic ignition in the distributor and simply quit worrying about it.

I can't stand it. I'm getting ahead of his schedule in the garage, and would like to hear what you guys have to offer. Whe needs to be done?

[Owen_Dyneto]

Assuming the shaft is OK, just rebushing a distributor is a pretty basic operation. Chances are the bushings of correct dimension will be off-the-shelf items but even if not, sizing them would be a pretty basic operation for a good home shop, or there are plentyof places that rebuild distributros. As to electronic ignition, i'd stick with tried and true points and condensor. 6-volt electronic conversions haven't established the same reputation for reliability as their 12-volt counterparts.

[Guest Hockeye]

OK, here we are again.

I'm not so sure there are off the shelf bushings.

This is a Delco-Remy 640E

Here are two photos. One shows it disassembled. The shaft fits into a sleeve which has grease grooves. The shaft/sleeve is worn, so that there is play affecting the rotor to distributor cap contact specs. There are no separate bushings.

The third part carries the cam, which also has wear, making things worse, and the plate for the points.

Now: who among you has a NOS distributor?

Failing that, are there folks who can rebuild this and make it work? Please give me a name or two.

http://i798.photobucket.com/albums/yy265/hockeye1757/nash3.jpg

http://i798.photobucket.com/albums/yy265/hockeye1757/nash2.jpg

I'll go back and cry for a while... sniff....

There has to be something which can be done. Surely such as lovely car has a better future than to languish "on display" because of a distributor....

[Guest stude8]

The distributor doesn't look too deteriorated like many that sit out in a field for 20 or 30 years. Like Owen said, it looks to be a simple rebushing job, in the old days service shops had bushings in all routine sizes on hand and this would be a 1 hour job at the worst. Get the current Hemmings Motor News and look up distributor service ads. Perhaps a local antique car fellow can recommend someone near you to do the work.

Stude8

[Guest stude8]

To answer your request for "names", from Nov 2011 Hemmings, pg150 "Services Offered".

Since your profile doesn't list your location here are the five distributor repair ads shown by state.

Norton, Grand Rapids, MI; 616-677-1208

Soucy, TN; 800-556-1365

No Name, IN; 812-598-8965

Buffalomachineworks, CO; 888-895-9904

RTclassicautorestoration, OR; 503-581-0514

Let us hear how it comes out for you.

Stude8

[Guest willeys41]

I would try Ray 206 300 1083 ray@OCPNW.com