OneStopRestoration's Special Orange 69 Chevelle 300 Deluxe Coupe

[OneStopRestoration]

I enjoy doing some of the tuning work the most. Distributor fully taken apart, cleaned and reconditioned the main casting. I select the right vac advanced based on the vacum start and max vacum value, along with the number of degrees i want to see at the crank. This can get tedius as i also include a stop bushings on the vac advance to limit the number of degrees. On this build it was only 13deg of vac advance. I put together a 454 one time with like 25 and it pinged and knocked terrible so i tend to be on the conservative side for Vac advance.

On the mechanical side I have to cut new stop bushings to fit up on the main shaft advance boss. This is never the same for each unit as i mix and match the advance and main shaft parts. To be honest i see no reason to get in a big hurry to rebuild one back to factory specs. To recurve you have to modify so many things it just not worth it. I have alos come to learn that looking at the manuals, a 396, 427 or 454 running a single digit advance just gives you a lazy motor that may want to overheat more at idle. On this build im gonna be rougyly at 18deg of initial advance and around 37deg max limited.

Many years back i bought a sun distributor machine to do all this messing around. It can be done in the car but that means putting it in and out for changes. Its bad enough with the machine. To quicken the curve i do play with the fly weights by grinding the contact area to speed up the advance curve along with lighter springs. Springs can only do so much for a guy and grinding the weights for me is usually the knob that works best to me.

I get pretty nerdy and track with a spreadsheet my advance curve. a quick curve with a larger initial can really improve throttle response.

[dykstra]

Very cool! Love that dizzy machine.

[Zman1969]

Man I played with a Sun Distributor machine in H/S auto shop I'd love to find one locally as shipping is prohibitive. Yours is restored nicely BTW

[big gear head]

I'd love to have one of those machines. There is one local that's been sitting in the same place with the same Ford distributor in it for about 40 years. I can't talk the owner into selling it to me.

[SS427]

Right side up

[OneStopRestoration]

Originally Posted by Zman1969

Man I played with a Sun Distributor machine in H/S auto shop I'd love to find one locally as shipping is prohibitive. Yours is restored nicely BTW

I got mine from Paramount many years back. There about double what i payed if there are any avaialbe. I have noticed there stock comes and goes really quickly. I thought about getting a used one but it concerned me as to wether a used one would work and then be reading accurately.

[OneStopRestoration]

Sourced an alternator for the car. Just basic disassembly and recondition of the case. I was replacing diodes at one time when doing these but i never have seen where there needed. You can get fancy and do the lettering on the rear of each diode, but i passed this time. New bearings front and rear along with a new set of brushe and all hardware replated. Repro pulley which honestly look really good to me compared to originals.

[OneStopRestoration]

My dad had a set of 4:56 GM gears that came from a very early 67 chevelle ss he had. Thats a story for a different day. Got a used 4 series carrier. I spent several days on this. I cleaned and checked the clutch packs which included shimming per the GM overhaul book.

For setup up of the gear pattern i use a case spreader as to not pound on the shims. This especially gets helpfull when setting up a new set of gears to a housing. After 2 days of in and out with both the pinion shims and the diff shims I got to something I was happy with. The process even with the spreader is very tiring. Shocked on this setup as the pinion shim ended up being the stock .025 which is much thinner than most others i have heard about and done. Most cases as i have seen the stock shim with the housing will work on the next setup even in gears are changed(well for GM for sure)

Once everyting is setup you take all apart put in fresh roller tapper bearings on the pinion, do the torque procedure of the crush sleeve to get the proper drag and then slam in the diff.

I was glad once it was under the car. That only took 30 mins compared to about 3 days.

[WILMASBOYL78]

The project looks great...your tach will get a work out with those 4.56 gears

Can't wait to hear that motor fire up

[scuncio]

Where did you source the case spreader?