Dissing a Motorcraft Dissy

[DHugg]

I had no mechanical advance, and no clue! Then I discovered that the small pin that holds the iron aductor in place on the distributor shaft was missing. Result was the distributor held the idle position of six degrees throughout the acceleration range when "under the light".

I inserted a long cotter key, cutting off the top excess with my dremmel tool. With the same tool, I ground out a slot inside the rotor to fit the cotter key, and all if fine!

But for some unknown reason, no vacuum advance, not one degree. With a plastic "knitting needle" stolen from my wife's flower arrangement I plumbed the stopped-up vacuum advance hose, and found a blockage near one end. Cut open the hose to find a steel ball stuck into the passage.... had to be deliberate.

Can someone offer a reason that a PO would want to plug up permanently the vacuum advance hose? The tag on the vacuum advance canister says "CA". Are we trying to foil the smog Nazis?

 

[mstar]

I can not offer a explanation for what goes thru some peoples brains or lack of. Sorry to hear you found this but good now you can get it setup proper.For some reson a lot of folks have a hard time understanding engine timing and the advance systems.I don't know if it is a geographical
or terminology thing or what.And there is plenty of blame to go around
throughout the car hobby.It is not just jeep owners.Looks like from reading about your engine it is fairly stock so no need for any out of the ordinary timing adjustments.Stock distributer with factory mechanical advance and a vacuum advance plumbed to the correct port and your good to go.If it where me I would want to know the specs on this vehicle and know the dist. was performing correctly. Cheers, mike