Sticky Advance Mechanisms

"The centrifugal advance mecha

"The centrifugal advance mechanisms in marine distributors--especially Chryslers--tend to rust up and stick, resulting in a loss of top end power, bad idle, poor starting, loss of gas mileage, etc. There's a battle of spring force vs. centrifugal action going on inside the distributor, and the springs are very weak. A bit of rust or lack of lubrication and can't yank the mechanism back to full retard at idle.

So, if you time the motor with the advance not back to full retard (its normal idle position) you won't get full advance at cruising speed. And when (or if) the advance mechanism eventually returns to its normal idle position (full retard), the motor will now idle too low, backfire and stall when the throttle is juiced, and may even stall out completely.

So what's the fix? Exercises! (Did this today and it worked great.) Remove the cap and start flipping the rotor back and forth in a clockwise, counter-clockwise direction. Do it at least 50 to a hundred times if necessary until the rotor springs right back when you release it--it should rotate counter-clockwise about 10 degrees.

Free (my favorite price) and it only takes a few minutes.

Jeff"

where would I purchase the rep

where would I purchase the replacement springs?

"Darned if I know! You can bu

"Darned if I know! You can buy springs for SB Chevies in any hot rod shop and match them up.

Did one of your springs break, or are you assuming the spring is weak since the mechanism is sluggish?

Jeff"

"We have them if you need them

"We have them if you need them .. Just need to know if your working on a points or electronic dist.

Dave
www.hurrikain.com"

"I have e-mailed you a few tim

"I have e-mailed you a few times, but no reply?
I have two 1972 318"s which have the points set up.I would like to order two sets of springs if I could."

"Sorry about that John, But I

"Sorry about that John, But I run so many email filters because were talking to folks all over the world, sometimes a certain word or phrase will make a email marked as spam, or junk and then I don't see it. I will have them added to our website tonight. Check the site www.hurrikain.com and then look in the ignition section.
Dave"

John the website is updated BU

John the website is updated BUT I checked thru my suppliers and the points ones are again unavailable.
( We removed them from the website because they have been very hard to keep in stock ) I am looking for another source and will see if I can source them somewhere else.
Dave

Dave- I am also looking for th

Dave- I am also looking for these springs - Thks

"Ok guys here's the skinny

"Ok guys here's the skinny on these springs, There are only a handful of spring sets left in the country for the electronic distributors, but on the points dist. from Prestolite there are none left. The only thing you can get is a spring kit from Mallory that has a lot of springs for the older distributors and then you match yours to one in the kit. From what I have been told Mallory knows they have the market cornered and have no intentions in breaking these info a specific dist. package... And it looks like the best price on this can be had from Jegs at: http://www.jegs.com/i/Mallory/650/29015/10002/-1 This is even lower than I can buy them thru my supplier so save yourself some money guys!

Hope this helps

Dave"

"Hey, it ain't rocket scie

"Hey, it ain't rocket science (and I used to BE one so I know.)

The springs selected need to be strong enough to pull the advance mechanism back at idle, yet have the advance get all the way out at about 2,500 to 2,800 rpms (the sooner the better).

Unlike an automotiuve application, the advance on a marine engine is usually all the way out (running along) or all the way back (idle).

Trust me on this!

Jeff"

It's strange when you look

It's strange when you look at the springs used for the the points distributors and on the electronic ones. On the later electronic one's they have lighter springs and on the old point's prestolite dist. they usually have one light and one heavier spring. The earlier must have had slightly heavier weights.

"Thanks Dave for that link to

"Thanks Dave for that link to the springs.

My engine won't idle and it is difficult to start. While troubleshooting I found one of the advance springs had rusted and broke. Interestingly, before this happened this engine never ran as high an RPM as my starboard engine. Sounds like just about all the symptoms Jeff mentioned in the first post. So I'm hoping this solves all three problems! After reading this thread I'm going to check the springs in my other engine too to hopefully avoid this problem again.

Now I'm just hoping I can figure out which springs are the correct ones to use once they arrive.

Thanks Jeff for this helpful post!

Carl"

"My pleasure. I forgot to men

"My pleasure. I forgot to mention that one can improve the advance funion by oiling the assembly: Remove the rotor and put a few drops of oil on the place where the inner and outer shafts are visible (below the rotor). Work the oil in by flipping the rotor a few dozen times, then add some more oil and repeat.

Jeff"