Not another Mustang restoration thread.

8122pbrainard wrote: TRBenj wrote: Only one person I can think of who is bold enough to do that and he knows what I would tell him! It's really tough to dial in the timing perfectly by feel or ear and you can easily do damage if you're not super careful. In the case above, it sounds like you got it pretty close to spot on... but I would have used a light to set it rather than the seat of my pants. The timing light does not lie. Tim, I'm shocked that you can't time an engine without a timing light and only know one person that will do it. We used to do it all the time at Watercraft Sales. It became so routine that the mechanics wouldn't even get their timing lights out. You advance the distributor to the max RPM and the retard it slightly. NEVER had any damaged engines!!!

I'm sure most of us have done it, but it is a bit like using a matchbook cover instead of a feeler gauge and dwell meter for final tune. With your attention to detail I would think you would like a more precise setting for something as important as timing.

Back in Pete's day gasoline was gasoline too. Now you don't know if it's left over winter blend mixed with afternoon blend or what

peter1234 wrote: Riley wrote: [QUOTE=TRBenj] Bruce, if you're not using a timing light to set the timing, what are you using? After taking advice from a mutual friend, who told me he doesn't use a timing light, we just turned the distributor till it ran the best. We put a timing light on it just to see where it came in and the initial was about 13 and the final advance was 32+-. warm up the engine. Advance it till it starts hard and back it off a little bit...good to go    As much as I love g/m the HEI is an eye sore on any engine.

Although it doesn't look like the original crab cap, I don't find the DUI distributor to be an eye sore. IMO it has a pretty clean look and doesn't require an external coil. The cap comes in black, blue, red, yellow, and clear to make it look similar to OEM and it is available for RR engines.

Gary S wrote: .Start sacrificing parts just to get something not OE on where do you stop? Get rid of those motor mounts PCM's are better,get rid of that YL there are better. Those exhausts? there are better of those too, slippery road........pretty soon it don't look like a HM.

Deja vu, Must be icy up north

427 FE

john b wrote: [QUOTE=Riley] Hmmm, a YL with a tach drive and a clamp on crab cap, what does that fit?

You have seen one before, you probably just don't remember sensory overload!
Mallory had a nice electronic conversion kit at one time called E Spark,I think the Accel system was the same,might want to see if it's still made. Edit: here it is -
Mallory espark
Quite extensive installation though,I seem to remember you needed to remove the points cam,so I chickened out because I did not want to disassemble it that far. Did you see if Advance Distributor will work on yours?

I picked up the windshield frame from the anodizing shop today, they did a great job on the bright dip, it looks just like the original finish. There are some imperfections in the metal, but they are minor. I chose the best frame parts I had and had CMP strip the anodizing and polish the aluminum to prepare them for the new anodizing. When polishing metal there is a thin line to walk between polishing out all the imperfections and polishing out the detail of the casting or extrusion. I find that CMP walks that line very well.
I put in some hours on the distributor tonight as well. I have chosen the best parts from the two and have it pretty much cleaned up for assembly, maybe tomorrow. Two of the plastic advance weight bushings are damaged, one broke when I picked it up and one had a very small chip out of it. I was able to salvage two, enough to make a good distributor.
If anyone is interested in some of the other projects underway in my garage you can check out "John's Late Night Garage" on FB. There you will see some of the projects that have held me back on the Mustang progress. It's a closed group but I will approve you, my standards couldn't be lower. If you have one of these Mallory YL distributors I suggest you disassemble, inspect, and lubricate it from time to time. Mine looked good from the outside and the engine ran, but the advance plate was frozen on the shaft and both advance weights were frozen to their pivots. I have included a couple photos of the AIRCRAFT PAINT STRIPPER I used. It suffers from an identity crisis. The directions on the back get a bit weird.

The windshield frames came out great. They look original, much different than the ones we have that were redone. Putting the frame back on the glass is a scary job. We had a friend at a glass shop that helped us with ours. He had new felt, a padded work bench and a soft mallet to tap the frame on the glass.

Gary, I don't remember exactly what it was, but the original stuff we had was too brittle and this guy had it as stock in his shop. He specializes in car windshields.

8122pbrainard wrote: John, From what I can see in the pictures, it looks like the distributor advance will clean up nicely and you will end up with a good working unit. The advance may not be perfect but the mechanicals never were plus as I mentioned, you're not out there racing the lakes of MW's!! The plastic bushings can be purchased from McMaster. Considering they broke, they are nylon. Nylon becomes brittle with age and especially when it dries out. The old trick to keep nylon from breaking is to soak it in water over night! Springs look good in that they are not stretched out. Keep the crab!

Pete, you nailed it. I found the bushings at McMaster. Who'd a thunk it? Guess I will pick up a couple. Mine will work but you can't beat new, wait, I guess that's what I'm trying to do, avoid the precision of a new unit for the asthetics of a crabby cap that dwells unseen in the dark beneath a heavy fiberglass box. Sometimes I really wonder why I'm doing this.

Hi Ken, I really appreciate your input. I think the YL would be just fine in perfect condition, it's just that, even after addressing all the problems, it's not. I don't profess to speak for Pete, but I believe he is in favor of original equipment and would argue that the YL is fine. I appreciate his input in locating replacement bushings for the advance weights, they are one of the areas of most cocern. The bushings are very brittle to the point that I broke one carefully picking it up and I was only able to salvage the two I need. I believe the force created from running at high RPM would cause them to fracture giving compromised performance at best. The other area is the springs. They look pretty good now that I have cleaned them and the advance weights and plate were frozen in the retracted position so they had no force on them while the boat sat unused since about 2000. One advance plate is shot, it has wear marks where the advance weight studs ride and it would cause a detent in the primary advance position and suddenly advance to a proper setting when the rpm gets to some point to overcome the detent. The better plate has very slight detectable wear and i think it will function acceptably, but it has lost a bit of precision. The shaft bushings and the rest of it is in very nice shape. I am going with the electronic conversion, it can be changed back in very short order by just removing it and installing a points plate and setting the timing.
Thank you for your offer, I would like to have a spare distributor ready to go just in case.

John, I am very interested in this portion of your rebuild. Can you provide the page or part number for the bushings you found. I have a YL 520CV distributor that I will be rebuilding for my 260 Omc. My parts book does not even show a number for those bushings but a view of them. I also need to keep my fingers crossed on the "black" advance springs. Didn't mean to interrupt your posts. Thanks!

Just a little coffee talk here this morning. This thread is mislabeled. It should be rants of a crazy boat hack or something like that. This is not a restoration since I am only afddressing the issues with the boat. It will have some chips and scratches and I don't intend to do a gel coat job on it. It is more like a refurbishment of a survivor. We will put our own signature damage on it through the years as we enjoy it.

Gary S wrote: Your thread John reminds me as just a bunch of us sitting around talking about one of our favorite subjects. I think this is the bushing here Click on the part number then on product detail and it comes up.

That's it Gary.
I hope the administrators don't mind the ramblings with occasional useful information thrown in.

Hi John

Some more ramblings for the thread.

Post office says the parts will be there Thursday.

Here's a picture of what I sent



If you use the weights, springs and advance plate you should end up with a mechanical advance curve of

500    0 plus initial          

800   0 plus initial

1000   2 plus initial

1500   6 plus initial

2000   12 plus initial

2500   20 plus initial

2800   22 plus initial

3000   24 plus initial

anything over 3000 the same 24 limited by the advance stops that are set for 24 degrees

With 10 degrees initial you'd end up with 10 degrees at idle and 34 degrees at 3000 or above.

The springs are a mystery as far as what color they once were, but they worked well with the weights.

The points cam should work with your rotor and the points are some lightly used genuine Mallory that I think say in real small letters they were made south of the border
where burrito's come from

KenO