need help identifying this Correct Craft

Because the boat is under your engine, as opposed to in a car where there is the ground under your engine you have to worry about the heavier than air gas fumes that accumulate.   You need to first minimize those fumes, and secondly avoid making sparks that can ignite the fumes that cannot be minimized.

A marine carb, besides be tuned for the constant load of marine use is build to dump any extra fuel into the engine and not out side of the carb where it will puddle in the bilge and make fumes.

Marine distributors have to be built to contain the sparks they make and any explosions they may ignite.     But also they do not have a vacuum advance because the engine is under a constant load.   They need to utilize only a centrifugal advance in order to make the engine perform optimally. Just capping off the vacuum advance port on most automotive distributors will not provide you with enough total advance to make the engine perform optimally starting, off idle and through the top end.

Ya, so I'm not into driving bombs... I have the original carb I can go back to and for my own sanity I am sorry to ask the stupid question, but what's the difference in what I have and the marine parts that converts it back and forth from usable to self exploding?

rilee29 wrote: since I am not savvy enough to do the pics, the distributor is a Proform part # 67040. I installed it today and we have the baby breathing again! Sounds awesome! I am pretty sure the block is a reman, but with the HEI and the 750 Summit carb, it is very responsive. Had to rebuild the water pump today also. I don't seem to be getting the water flow where it should be though. I am using one of those plunger looking gismos on the underside of the boat . the attached hose goes to both the pump inlet and the oil cooler. I have seen some pretty clean looking setups on the internet and tried to make sure mine was the same, but who knows if they are correct....

I suppose the good news is that it runs but the bad news is that the distributor isn't a marine certified unit and the carburetor if it's one of the Summit label Holley knockoffs isn't either.

You can search on here or do a Google search about marine carbs and distributors to see what the differences are.

I like to stay out of conversations about people using non marine parts and why it was OK in their mind to use it or "convert" something though,

I figure you'll get some opinions for sure though.

KenO

click on the tree with the up arrow, then choose the picture you want.

Sorry, but I am not seeing any trees on the controls of this site. Geographically speaking, where are those controls?

KENO wrote: A 318 Chrysler doesn't have a gear on the distributor, the gear stays in the engine and there is a slot on the top. KenO

Wow, I did not know that. Very cool.

Donald

KENO wrote: 8122pbrainard wrote: Ken, Just so you don't have to further describe male shafts fitting into female slots, here's the picture: Thanks Pete You could have at least shown a marine distributor though

No problem Ken.
I did try to find a picture of a marine but none I could find showed the shaft end. For those who may not know the difference, the one shown is an automotive since it has a vacuum advance. It's the round diaphragm chamber on the side. Marine units are mechanical advance.

How do i get pictures on here from my phone? Cut and paste option doesn't seem to exist?

A 318 Chrysler doesn't have a gear on the distributor, the gear stays in the engine and there is a slot on the top. The end of the distributor shaft has a short male stub on it that fits in the female slot. Kinda like..........well never mind. Bound to get some comments on that description.

KenO

Donald80SN wrote: If you do have a Reverse Rotation Motor, the gear on the distributor will have to be different for the Reverse Rotation. Maybe you are planning on this. .

Yup, it's a RR:

rilee29 wrote: So the starter spins the motor ccw.looking at it from the front. .

Well sooner or later somebody will ask if it's a marine distributor so it might as well be sooner like right now.

Is it a marine distributor?

Test light was resting about an inch from the distributor wire on the case when I turned the key to the run position. Within seconds I started to see smoke at the ballast too so I shut down and disconnected the distributor wire. Everything was OK then. I assumed the wire was shorting internally in the distributor. I have a dvom. You guys are awesome to even take the time to brainstorm with me! Thanks a ton!

I'm still struggling to understand a bit of it myself. The points and condenser are new. They were installed by the previous owner who owned Taylor Marine in Salt Lake. Obviously the smart ones had trouble too. I bought a new coil and ballast last night and that's when I noticed the magic leaking. Test light lighting was an accidental find but in any case, everything got shut down. I know power to the casing should not happen so I am looking for a electronic conversion plate for the distributor. I hate hunting down 50 year old problems. Off to the parts house again......btw...I have a wiring schematic so wiring has all been checked by me and another person for correctness. I'll post later when I find parts.

8122pbrainard wrote: Dreaming wrote: So maybe my ignorance is showing out a bit here, but I have never heard of having a distributor body light up a test light before.    How can that be possible?    Kris, It's got me confused as well. It's got to be the way Rick described it??

i could say something like "this should be intuitively obvious to the most casual observer" but I'd be lyin".

It wasn't much of a description of how he did this, but it's coming from the battery one way or another.

I guess he'll probably have a better description coming along soon though.

So maybe my ignorance is showing out a bit here, but I have never heard of having a distributor body light up a test light before.    How can that be possible?     Seems to me that the light would flash on momentarily if the spark was jumping to ground if there was a problem with the internals of the distributor, but that would also suggest that touching the distributor during cranking would give you one nasty surprise.   If the light lights when standing still (which is what it sounds like to me from your description above), I might be tempted to think your battery positive and negative are reversed...   If the positive was going straight to the engine block, it seems like you would get this result.   Since this is an old boat without electronic parts, You might be able to do a positive "ground" without having to send parts back to the factory to have the smoke reinstalled .    Seems like this would make the starter spin backwards too and without having much power.   If I am totally off base, I would love to be educated.

Sounds to me like a good inspection of the distributor wire from the coil negative terminal where it enters the distributor and replacement of at least the points and condenser would maybe solve your problem.

And making sure you have a distributor body ground to the engine