"Remy" - "Delco" - "Delco-Remy" = not the same

[gervaisgt]

I am trying to I.D. some very old ignition parts and I want to ask here

IF product made before 1919 by Remy and  product made before 1919 by Delco

were interchangeable, I've learn that in 1920 they joined together to form Delco-Remy.

My problem is to find the aplication for a dual spark 6 cylinders distributor cap.

Inside there is a "Delco" logo.

[Old buicks 2]

Gervisat,  sent you a private message

[rbk]

Let me know if it is for sale?

[Peter R.]

In the early days Delco and Remy were two independent starting, lighting and ignition equipment manufacturers. In May 1916 Delco as well as Remy had been sold to the United Motors Corporation, a syndicate of automobile component manufacturing companies. In 1918 the United Motors Corp. was sold to General Motors so Delco and Remy became Divisions of GM. On January 1st 1927 GM merged the two companies to the Delco-Remy Division.

Delco started producing battery ignition distributor caps as early as 1911, Remy started 1915. Between 1911 and 1926 Delco manufactured at least 58 different distributor caps (for cars). Pre-1927 Delco caps produced after 1927 will have a Delco-Remy logo. Prior to 1927 Delco and Remy products were not interchangable.

Judging from the pictures your cap is most likely an early twin ignition six cap as used on some 1924-27 Pierce-Arrow cars. I will look up the part number if you wish.

Let me know if I can be of further assistance in helping you to identify your early ignition parts. Pete

 

 

[nickelroadster]

It looks like it is probably a Delco cap from the later twenties that went on some  Pierce-Arrows, some Stutzes and a 27 or 28 large Marmon.  I seem to recall a previous post in the last month that listed even more applications for this cap.

[Spinneyhill]

 

[Peter R.]

The cap you are talking about is Delco-Remy P/N 1839161.

It came out around 1932 and was used on the following applications:

 

1929-31 A.C.F.

1930 Federal

1926-27 Marmon

1924-28 & 1932-33 Pierce-Arrow

1929-31 Stutz/Blackhawk

1929-30 White

1928-30 Yellow Coach

 

The thing is that there were several different 6 cylinder 2 spark distributor caps in use between 1924 and 1933 and they superseded each other. The history of these Delco and Delco-Remy caps is not easy to comprehend but here’s the whole story as far as I can tell:

 

There was a total of 4 different caps between 1924 and 1933. Two caps came out during the Delco era (before 1927) and two in the Delco-Remy era (after 1926).

 

The first cap was Delco P/N 16184, which originally came out for Pierce-Arrow in 1924.

It was a sliding contact type cap and found use on Pierce-Arrow (1924-26) as well as on Marmon (1926).

 

The following cap was Delco P/N 16778. It was the first jump spark type replacement cap that superseded Delco P/N 16184. It was used 1926-27.

 

The third cap was Delco-Remy P/N 821694, which replaced the above two pre-1927 Delco era caps and was used until 1931.

 

Finally in 1932 the Delco-Remy cap P/N 1839161 was released. This was the last 6 cylinder two spark cap Delco-Remy made and it replaced all its three predecessors.

 

All four caps are interchangeable (with their corresponding rotor only!)

Three different rotors had been used on the four caps (Delco P/N 16228, Delco P/N 16778 and Delco-Remy P/N 1839123).

Caps 16778 and 821694 used the same rotor P/N 16779, thus a Delco rotor had been carried over into the post-1926 Delco-Remy era for a short transition time.

 

Summary:

 

Cap 16184 – Delco, sliding contacts, 1924-26

Cap 16778 – Delco, jump spark, 1926-27

Cap 821694 – Delco-Remy, jump spark, 1928-31

Cap 1839161 – Delco-Remy, jump spark, 1932-33 (1924-33)

 

To make a long story short, I’m quite confident that the above pictured distributor cap is a Delco P/N 16778 cap that came into use in 1926 to replace the earlier Delco sliding contact cap P/N 16184, which by then was used on Pierce-Arrows and Marmons,

The cap remained in use until around 1928 when it had been superseded again by Delco-Remy cap P/N 821694 and so on.

 

Hope this sheds some light on the topic.

[Peter R.]

Here are some pictures of an old used 16184 cap

[Peter R.]

....and of a 1839161 cap

[SSMcDonald]

I don't see Packard listed in this discussion. My 1927 Packard model 343 has an 8 cylinder Delco Distributor. My mechanic tells me to acquire a replacement distributor cap. So does anyone have one on their shelf that they'd part with? I have a NOS rotor Steve at Navy65@windstream.net

    Reading Peter R's post, I suspect I need a Delco 16778 cap. 

Edited February 23, 2020 by SSMcDonald
facts left out of original post. (see edit history)

[lump]

I seem to recall finding a distributor cap years ago which I THOUGHT was for a V-12 or V-16 (can't recall which), but it turned out to be for a twin-ignition Nash.