I saw mention of an article in Performance News about a home-made distributor machine by John Des Armond. Anyone see the article circa 1993?

Anyway it seems you could hook up the distributor, ECU, coil, #1 spark plug, battery and drive the whole rig with an electric drill. I envision putting a marker on the distibutor gear, a mark to line it up on and connect up my timing light and rev her up and down. While watching the pointer move forward and backward with the timing light.

Anyone done this? Any comments, improvements, errors in my scheme?

bwhitejr

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'72 Duster (Performance 360)
'83 Ramcharger (Performance 318)
'80 TrailDuster (360)
'80 D-150 Truck (See Below)
CompCams 252S, Holley 390cfm, Offy manifold
Ported, Polished and Gasket Matched
P4286813 Springs,0.040 Overbore,
0.090 Shaved Head

It could be done, but your resolution would be hard to deal with on that small a diameter.

I have three distributor machines, all of which use a degree wheel of 8" or greater diameter. Just like cam degreeing, the larger the degree wheel, the greater the distance between degree marks, and the greater the resolution of you results. An 8" wheel would have the degree marks .070" apart...but that is didtributor degrees...which is two crank degrees. So each crankshaft degree is .035". Also, you need an accurate way to measure rpm, which is one half the engine rpm.

The other thing a distributor machine does that would be difficult to emulate in a home brew solution...is the ability to watch all six or eight sparks at the same time, to make sure they fire equadistant from each other. Worn point cam lobes or improperly machined reluctor cores are not uncommon, and the spark can vary from cyl to cyl in this scenario.

That said, it wouldn't be that hard to build your own machine that works decent. But I think it would be just about the same cost and time, to simply try to find an old one yourself...I've never paid more than $100 for one, and was given my nicest one for free. A 1945 Allen synchrograph



It works great and I use it all the time.

Gearhead

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64 GTO...10.80's@122 on street radials
Destroked 455, Qjet, stock ign, 2400 stall

64 Valiant
Old 225, 4spd, 2.92-8.75, 2bbl, headers
dual 2.25"