Mark Schrier
Member
This is a story about the distributor on a '49 8N that I rebuilt back in June of 2013. I was working the tractor a couple days ago and she just died. Figuring it might be time for a tune up I bought the basic parts today and pulled the distributor. when I tried turning the shaft by hand, it would hang up in one spot and would not make a full revolution in either direction.
So I broke it down and here's a couple shots of the findings.
This was a new shaft that I had installed along with a new plate and back bushing. the pin on the broken spring weight was the loosest and was working its way out to the back. The other one was not as loose and just starting to move to the front.
The missing piece of spring steel was ground into dust inside the case. My thought is that the spring probably broke off first. This would allow that way to sling out far enough to bounce of the case, as evidenced by the damage on its outer edge. The pounding would have caused the knurled pin to pound the hole into an oval and work its way out. The other pin may have been affected by the vibration and started working loose as well.
My questions are:
(1)Whether anyone else might have another explanation of why this happened or if my explanation actually makes sense?
(2)Since this is an aftermarket shaft that I bought through the store on this website, is this a common problem with these aftermarket shafts? Want to determine if I just happened to get the lemon in the batch and should just plunk down another $70 for another and give it another try.
Since it ran good for 2 years before failing, I'm thinking I didn't bugger up the install, but.....
(3)Is there something I might have done wrong during the assembly?
Any advice or opinions would be appreciated.
So I broke it down and here's a couple shots of the findings.
This was a new shaft that I had installed along with a new plate and back bushing. the pin on the broken spring weight was the loosest and was working its way out to the back. The other one was not as loose and just starting to move to the front.
The missing piece of spring steel was ground into dust inside the case. My thought is that the spring probably broke off first. This would allow that way to sling out far enough to bounce of the case, as evidenced by the damage on its outer edge. The pounding would have caused the knurled pin to pound the hole into an oval and work its way out. The other pin may have been affected by the vibration and started working loose as well.
My questions are:
(1)Whether anyone else might have another explanation of why this happened or if my explanation actually makes sense?
(2)Since this is an aftermarket shaft that I bought through the store on this website, is this a common problem with these aftermarket shafts? Want to determine if I just happened to get the lemon in the batch and should just plunk down another $70 for another and give it another try.
Since it ran good for 2 years before failing, I'm thinking I didn't bugger up the install, but.....
(3)Is there something I might have done wrong during the assembly?
Any advice or opinions would be appreciated.
