Before putting this thread to rest, I wanted to solve some of my own questions. Why did I remember the double nuts on the screw holding the primary lead wire...why didn't I remember the slotted screw stevesr mentioned. This all took place 40 years ago, but it bugged me. I just went down and took the distributor out of the 235 engine under the tarp near the shop.
Yes, the bakelite was broken..no, there isn't a nut on the inside of the distributor...yes, there is a slotted nut holding the two halves of the insulating washer together and the complexity of the bakelite pieces and thru-bolt are much more than I remember.
The first time I went into a Snap-on type tool truck (it was a Mac Tool truck) that went from shop to shop selling tools to mechanics..I was the clean-up boy at my cousin's shop and I purchased a neat set of ignition wrenches in a little vinyl pack.
The reason I got them was for the double nutted screw that poked through the distributor and had the primary wire on it...YES, someone before me, probably as they were trying to change the points, encountered that silly slotted screw and didn't have the driver stevesr and tclederman mentioned. They got it unscrewed, dumped it and replaced it with a few flat washers and a couple of nuts....much easier to address when it came time to change the points.
The length of thread sticking beyond the slotted nut on my distributor was almost 5/16"..this held a conventional nut, and of course the
lead wire. All this would have to be removed to gain access to the slotted head nut to change the points and condenser..what a pain.
I had to make it clear in my own mind why I remembered these things as I did...I am too young, I think, to have my memory go south on me.
Stuart.
