You can do the conversion at home with a file and hacksaw although a grinder is less labor. First of all the shaft must be shortened about 3/8 inch and the taper reground into the cut end using a file or grinder. Second ,use the hack saw to cut thin retaining flange of the distributer body . After you have hacked off the retainer flange, use a course file to smooth the dist body to a round profile. This does not have to be perfect machining to work properly . What is important is to make sure the distance from the dist drive gear to the drive shaft end is identical to the old distributer, measure carefully.Finally, make up some sort of hold down clam, you can hack up the original or make your own.Absolutley make sure the distrubuter is fully seated before starting the engine as it drives the oil pump.I made a few of these for Stovebolters here ,and altogether converted around 10 distributers using the file and hack saw.No problems with any of them were reported.Old HEI distributers from 250 engines are generally gummed up, the shaft will not turn easily. Or you can by the Pertonix conversion if you don't like the ugly HEI.
