The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Ignition Reversing Switch

I was looking at a manual for a '47 Chevrolet pickup. They described a switch mounted on the starter and linked to the "stomper" that was called a ignition reversing switch. This switch reversed the system polarity through the points on run, I think, to reduce arcing and extend the point life.

I have never heard of this item..has anyone else!


Stuart

Yea,... I'm driving a stock 41' 1/2 ton that has it. as far as I know it still works. It might have been around earlier than that.

Boy Stuart, that's a strange one to me. While we're on the subject of strange bolt engineering, my 38 has an "octane selector". Ever see one of those? I never had.

Tiny,

I have never seen a octane selector. I had a '38 sedan (master?) with knee action suspension and that funny armored cable from key to coil.

Tweak,

Cool..how did you find out what it was and how it worked?


Stuart

the octane selector was a distributer advanceing/retarding thing - it's what they called the advance back then

Bill

My understanding of that switch on the side of the starter switch(mounted atop the starter) was to send full battery voltage to the coil during starter operation.Check your Chevy Duty catalog,I think they sell them.

That switch actually reverses the polarity of the current in the points, each time the truck is started. I bought a starter on Ebay a few years ago and it had one of those. There is an extra linkage to it. In reality it just presented something more to break down.

Yep, those switches were eliminated late in the '48 model year "due to field maintenance problems".

Bill is correct. It's a graduated adjustment on the distributor that allows you to advance or retard the timing by as much as 6 deg. This was to allow the owner to adjust to the variable quality of gas available then. Here is the best pic I have but it isn't a good one. You can see the setup at the base of the distributor cap. If you look close you can see the adjusting knobs & the pointer.
http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f167/Tinys1938/Im001283.jpg

weird.

My dad's 1930 Fjord AA has an advance control on the steering column, opposite the hand throttle. The manual just calls it a "spark advance."

Stuart,... I found it on page 280 of the 41' shop manual. http://chevy.tocmp.com/1941shop/41csm280.htm . Tells a little about it too.

Tweak,

Pretty cool...who said GM engineers weren't smoking hemp on the job!


Stuart

Thanks Tweak,A picture is worth a 1,000 words!!This is not at all what I have seen.Mine was a terminal and pigtail wire off the side of the starter(stomp on me)switch that ran to the coil.

gtow69,

I think your switch delivers 12 volts to the coil on start up only. I have seen those switches in the books, and just went to confirm it in Chev's of the 40's, but couldn't find it.

I think these were aftermarket items developed for folks with the stomp starter that have retrofitted to the 12 volt system. I might be all wet on this, but can't think of a 6 volt use for them. In the 6 volt arrangement, I don't think voltage is reduced to the coil.


Does your Studie have the V-8 in it? I remember these (327?) as being pretty spunky mothers!

Stuart

Yes Atomarc,but it is an orignal 259 cid with a (GM)two speed automatic.Reverse is where low is on a newer automatic.Fun car to drive and sorta snappy.Parts are costly and rare.