The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop 1946 Chevy 1/2Ton - Distributor Question

Question #2 for me today - I'm swapping in a 235 (1960) engine and converting to 12V. 20 years ago I bought this Mallory Dual Point distributor, but now not sure about it. I have two 2403 distributors that I can clean up and I'm wondering if that is the way to go? Or, is this Mallory distributor worthy of installing? Also, stock distributor has vacuum advance. Is there a substitute that uses mechanical advance or can you convert the 2403 to mechanical advance? Just being lazy and not wanting to run a vacuum line up around the engine.

Your distributor should have both mechanical and vacuum advance.

I will defer to someone with more experience to suggest which of your choices to use.

That Distributor is listed as mechanical advance from a quick peek on line. I've never run anything but the original vacuum advance units to know if that will work for you or not??? Perhaps other Bolters will chime in with suggestions or recommendations.

I am leaning towards the stock distributor. Just need to find a tune-up/rebuild kit for it (points, condenser, rotor, cap, wires,...). Not sure why I bought the shiny red Mallory back in the day. Maybe there'll be a use for it later in the game. Thanks for the info Dan.

The stock Delco Remy distributors were made of excellent materials. The 2403 is the correct application for the 1960 motor. You need a vacuum advance for a street driven vehicle so take the time to get it all installed.
No sense in trying to reengineer what the engineers have already long ago sorted out.

You will want to take the 2403 apart, including removal of the point plate, and degrease everything. If the mechanical weights are rusty, you will need to disassemble the weights, wire brush them up nice and smooth, lubricate and reinstall. Make sure the two advance spring posts are tight and the springs are intact. Make sure the lobes are clean and smooth. Install the point plate and a decent set of Lubriplate points, new condenser (or one of the spiffy replacements one of our members sells). I think you will find yourself much better served with a clean, adjusted 2403 distributor, with a working vacuum advance.

Now, dual points. Dual points were the bomb when I was in high school in the 70s and earlier. One of the reasons, there were really not that many alternatives, especially for the 235/261. The dual points were intended to increase saturation time and theoretically work better. And they did work to a degree in higher rpm motors. Since that time, lots of better alternatives, HEI, MSD. But for a stock motor, I would venture a guess that there is little to no real improvement in a stock motor by using a dual point distributor.

I have one of those distributors, brand new. And the truth is I have never installed it and I would be hesitant to install it on a stock motor, or even a higher performance 235 or 261 over say a 2304 distributor and an MSD, or even just a stock 2403.

Just as an example, I ran one of my modified 261 motors down Beach Bend Raceway in 2015 and 2016, getting in the range of 5800 rpm with a rebuilt 2403 and a set of lubripoints and that motor did not skip a beat.

The other thing is parts. Cap, rotor, points, all pretty easy to get for the 2403 distributor, and not all that expensive. The Mallory, not so much.

Thanks Mike. I appreciate the input.

Contact Jon G for one of his 200,000 hr condensers.

All of my vehicles have breaker points and I've installed his condensers in all of them after two different cars suffered condenser-related ignition trouble in short succession. New store-bought ones are crap and barely last a year if you're lucky.

I had a dual point distributor back in the Seventies on a different vehicle so I’ve had a bit of experience. Setting up a dual point distributor without a Sun distributor machine is near impossible.

Stick with the stock distributor or find an HEI to install. You’ll have much less headaches, and your engine will run great.

2X on Otto’s suggestion to buy one of Jon G’s condensers.

I'm going with an old Mallory dual point just because. It'll add some cool and a little different factor to my dump.

Dual points = double trouble. I grew up around a shop in the 1950s where my father modified Lincoln Zephyr 12 cylinder dual point distributors with two coils to run on alcohol fueled dirt track flathead Ford V8s, so that's not just the idle chatter of somebody who doesn't know any better. I'm a little crippled up from a motorcycle wreck 11 years ago, but I think I could outrun somebody who wanted to GIVE me a Mallory dual point distributor.

We had a Sun distributor machine that looked a lot like that one in my 1964 High School Auto Shop class.

Mr. Parker (shop teacher) did a show and tell one day using a distributor from a fellow student's 1948 Chevy. It spun all the way to 2500 distributor RPM with no point bounce and very little scatter.

Go to e-bay and look for NOS Delco points, then buy a good condenser from Jon G. The " old " Delco points are much better then the new ones.

1960-62 235

cap D3O7
rotor D405
coil D511
points D105P or D111
cap/rotor kit 101-402
tune-up kit 101-3
spark plugs #45 standard R43CS copper core
spark plug wires 606C

My distributor machine will spin to 6300 crank rpm, NOS points will run right up to it without missing, new points started missing about 4700 rpm on the last 283 distributor I worked on.

Thanks Joe. I've contacted Jon G for a condenser. Also, thanks for the part numbers.

No problem, I bought a used 1989 Delco parts book for another project, its pretty handy to have.