[Silver Surfer]

Hi. I am dealing with a Chevy HEI for a small block 350...

From what I heave read, they used to use a small plastic flat donut seal, and eventually stopped using it altogether. There is also a felt lubricating "washer" too. Does that felt piece sit on top of the plastic seal? If you are supposed to fill the grease well with grease, then how does grease get past the seal to the felt? What is the grease supposed to lubricate? The shaft is lubed with engine oil, correct?

For whatever I am supposed to lube, will this work?
NAPA AUTO PARTS

I have to ignition coils, both show 1 ohm on the primary and about 8.88 K ohm on the secondary. They seem to be the same...is there a way to indicate which one is better (higher voltage)?

[cobalt327]

The distributor shaft that has the gear on it is lubricated at the top by grease packed into the cavity below the plastic disc- if it has a plastic disc, that is.

On some distributors the felt went on top of the grease, others had the felt on top of the plastic disc. The felt lubes the pick up coil/mechanical advance plate assemblies, not the shaft w/the gear. BTW, what I'm calling the pick up coil is the part w/the vacuum advance arm attached to it, sometimes it's referred to as a stator/reluctor. The mechanical advance plate has the pins that the weights and cam attach to. Neither one of these has access to the grease in the well or cavity below the plastic disc or felt, or both.

The grease you show should be fine. In the past I've used a lithium type grease. Wheel bearing grease (non melting) isn't a good choice- you want something that will flow when it's hot, but not be too runny. But whatever you use be sure the small feed holes to the shaft are unobstructed. They tend to clog up w/old, hard grease and always need to be cleaned out on used distributors it seems.

[Silver Surfer]

Originally Posted by cobalt327

The distributor shaft that has the gear on it is lubricated at the top by grease packed into the cavity below the plastic disc- if it has a plastic disc, that is.

That is the confusing part to me. As far as I can tell, the well, at least what I consider to to be the well (see attached pic), is isolated from the shaft. Is there a (clogged) hole in there somewhere? I shined a light and cannot see any indication of a hole.

Originally Posted by cobalt327

On some distributors the felt went on top of the grease, others had the felt on top of the plastic disc. The felt lubes the pick up coil/mechanical advance plate assemblies, not the shaft w/the gear. BTW, what I'm calling the pick up coil is the part w/the vacuum advance arm attached to it, sometimes it's referred to as a stator/reluctor. The mechanical advance plate has the pins that the weights and cam attach to. Neither one of these has access to the grease in the well or cavity below the plastic disc or felt, or both.

The grease you show should be fine. In the past I've used a lithium type grease. Wheel bearing grease (non melting) isn't a good choice- you want something that will flow when it's hot, but not be too runny. But whatever you use be sure the small feed holes to the shaft are unobstructed. They tend to clog up w/old, hard grease and always need to be cleaned out on used distributors it seems.

I am not sure if I should use the plastic seal or felt. Those parts are from the old and rusty distributor (AC Delco). I obtained a newer unit from a local circle track racer, and I believe he said it is from Speedway motors, and it did not have these parts. I plan on using the "circle track" distributor since it is in much better condition. Should I just ditch the plastic seal and felt altogether?

Also I do have some more lingering questions...

1) The grease I indicated in the first post, is used in the well and lubes both the upper shaft and the stator as it advances and retards with vacuum?

2) Why does the bottom of the shaft with the oil galley passage have two different sizes? See pic.

3) The vacuum advance cans are different between the two distributors.

• The AC Delco vacuum advance (this might actually be aftermarket) takes about 9" of vacuum to move it initially, and it takes 15" to move it completely. It also has a short travel of 1/8" under the full 15" of vacuum.
• The "circle track" advance will start moving under 1" of vacuum and reaches full advance under 12" of vacuum and moves 1/4" in total.

I am using the CompCams XE274H with Vortec heads, so I think the "circle track" advance can would be better. Agree?

4) Another difference between the two are the mechanical advance plates/arms/whatever you call them. One is an "X" (rusty one on left) and the other is an "I" (clean one on the right, see pic. Anything I need to know here? It appears there is no place to put the plastic sliders for the weights on the "I" version.

5) Should I lube the shafts for the advance weights or will that just collect and trap slag and dust?