May 2005 -------- The weak point on the Prestolite distributors is the owner of the car. The distributor itself is a good unit but fails due to the owner not taking the time to lubricate it as part of a normal maintenance schedule. -------- As far as I know Alex its the centrifugal weight system that is their weak point,they have a tendency to throw the weights off,but as I pointed out in all my Studes with a Prestolite distributer with many miles of driving I haven't personaly had a minutes troule with any of them. The only time I was shut down by a distributer was when my 57 Golden Hawk with a Delco ,decided to break its rotor button.As I happened to have a spare with me I looked like a freaking genuis when I lifted the cap,installed aspare and we where on our way.This was on the side of the road at night.I was lucky cause the engine was running fine,untill it just sort of ran out of power,back fired a few times and died. ------- Well, you can't blame people for not wanting to pull the breaker plate and/or peer in there and blindly stab with an oil can to lubricate the weights as part of normal service. However, according to Dave Thibeault you can directly swap in big block MoPar weights and springs and the resulting advance curve is similar to a stock R-series curve. Alternately you can have the weights drilled and Oilite bushings installed, or Dave sells the weights already modified that you can just install if your pins are still in good condition. The oil cup and the felt under the rotor still need to be regularly lubricated however. ------- *** IMPORTANT COMMENT:The worst problem I ever had with a distributor failure was when someone rebuilt a unit and installed a hardened "roll-pin" in the shaft instead of the original style "shear-pin". When one of the weight springs rusted and failed, the advance weight locked up the distributor- and wound the plug wires up like spaghetti. I was lucky the hold-down bolt was snug, but not too tight. Otherwise, it would have destroyed the distributor gear, or broke the drive-gear on the cam. NEVER use a hardened pin on the distributor shaft!!!!!!!!!! Actually Alex.. there's not a thing wrong with ANY of the Stude distributors discussed. For all-around basic distributing, I'd go with a 1110864 (common V-8 Dist 1957-1962), and install a Pertronix. Keep the points/cond as spares just in case- they are easy to change in a pinch and take up no room at all. Parts are readily available, and it's an easy unit to work on. The R1 is a dual-point(Prestolite), and the parts are somewhat more difficult to find. They aren't too "common". There are "wear" issues for both the advance weights, the posts, springs, and the upper bushing. Proper maintainance of a good unit negates any problems. Parts are available, but usually must be ordered. ----------------------- It's easy to break the vacuum advance by just pushing the breaker plate against it. Either the pin on the breaker plate snaps off, or the vacuum can breaks loose. You need to check movement with a vacuum pistol. Shaft end play, in the housing, should be at the tight end of tolerance. It's a spiral drive gear; and up and down movement changes the timing. Often the ball bearing, between the breaker plate halves, has never been serviced. The halves can be separated by turning the two little clips 90 degrees. I use Borg Warner A95 points, and G136 condenser; from Napa. The points have their own pivot, and use the pins on the breaker plate only as locator pins; so wear doesn't matter. I'm looking for a Delco points set that has the spring fastened in place. I have one old set like this, but don't know the part #. I removed the ground wire between the breaker plate halves; and ran one from the condenser screw through the housing along side the points wire, to a screw on the outside. It's long enough, inside the distributor, to be flexible, and allow free movement of the breaker plate. Mike M. ----------------------------- Jan 2006 parts sources ------------------ oillite weight bushings, shaft bushings, and thrust washers. It looks like Moroso careis the right shims. the number given on the _www.jeg.com_ (http://www.jeg.com) site is 710-26140 Stan G. ------------------ The early 60s Chryslers (and Dodges etc,I guess) also used the same Prestolite distributor and there were both single and dual point versions. I have not been able to come up with any cross reference part numbers though. I can tell you that Mr. Gasket 925B is listed for early Chrysler products and, in spite of the catalog pictures, contains only the springs. Jack U.