If you have a ford 1.6 gasser read this

[mike_belben]

It has taken me a long time to beat the ford 1.6L gas ignition woes. Let me save you some trouble. I had 2 machines both with shot distributor shaft bushings that ate up points in an hour. I could never find a reman or even anyone who would touch it or sell me the bushings to reman it myself and i finally found out why. Ford spec'd these distributor shafts to NOT be hardened to save money, so motorcraft and Bosch units have a soft shaft that wears with the bushing. It would need to be chromed to build it up and then ground back to spec THEN rebushed and no one wants to deal with this. New shafts are NLA. So in my ignorance i bought a pertronix complete electronic distributor for almost $300. Big mistake, junk. Many $129 ignitors later i said enough and pulled it out, rounded up all my stuff and said this thing is going back to points, somehow. Many calls and much research later i now know that these 1.6 ford industrials, also known as crossflows and kents, from the ford cortina and formula ford racing, use a lucas 45D distributor with a ford/lotus style drive gear on the end. Thats enough info to get you a replacement distributor. Jeff@advanceddistributors was a huge help and can hook you up with anything you need. If you want electronic do not buy a pertronix, buy the accuspark. If you are unfortunate enough to have a pertronix distribitor that you hate, it can convert back to points by using the breaker plate and condensor from a 1975 MGB 4cylinder. They will both drop right in. Gap points to .017 and set base timing to about 16* with a light and get back to work. PS.. Only buy genuine lucas breaker plate. Its about $12 at advanced auto. The chinese ones are the same price and the breaker contacts dont even line up.. Theyll burn up quick. I think its the lucas 25D breaker and condensor.

 

[mike_belben]

Another thing i wish i did sooner, was deleting the hoof governor. It worked terrible and leaked like crazy until it exploded. The price is outrageous so i deleted it entirely by putting a lawnmower idler pulley in its place to tension the water pump. Then i made up a mount and a rocker linkage to pull the throttle by cable with a hand lever on the left stick. Its literally just a plastic bicycle brake opened up to fit the stick, a piece of bike brake cable inside some steel brakeline tubing with a fet thin saw slits to drain any rain water out of the bottom radius. I love it. Took some getting used to but id never go back. This is just a salvaged burnt machine for the backyard so anything goes. I do NOT recommend buying a gasser if you do not own one. Not worth the grief.

 

[Wayne440]

Thank you. I have a 742 that (so far) has been trouble free for ignition issues. But sure that some day this will be valuable information.