Mechanical Advance

The PIG Smith

The Vacuum Advance canister of J20's dizzy is always in the way of my power steering belt. I am thinking of replacing my Vacuum Advance with a Mechanical Advance (springs and weights) Where do I purchase such a kit? I have the stock Motorcraft style distributor in my J20. Are they hard to install?

tufcj

The motorcraft distributor should have both mechanical and vacuum advances. If you do away with the vacuum, gas mileage may suffer a bit. Without vacuum, you'd want to have more mechanical advance, and bring it in sooner. The distributor basically has Ford innards, so anyplace that hotrods Fords should have the parts and some advice for how to do it. Why not just re-index the distributor a couple of teeth one direction or the other so the vacuum advance module points to a different place? Bob tufcj

The PIG Smith

tufcj wrote
Why not just re-index the distributor a couple of teeth one direction or the other so the vacuum advance module points to a different place?

Bob
tufcj

I've pulled the dizzy and moved it a couple of teeth.
I did not realize have far out it was to begin with.
I need to pull it and go a tooth or two more, for I would like a wee bit more room.

Here is what it looked like before I moved it: