ford flat head v8 distributors

[oldfordman]

hi everyone,
does anyone know if there is any truth in the things i have been hearing about setting up a ford flathead v8 distributor,my father in law says they have to be set up in a jig for proper running.im on restoring a 1950 version and i cant get a spark out of it for love nor money
can anyone help
thanks

[MG Mal]

They only thing I have experience of a flat head dizzy was on a late 40's V8 Pilot.

IIRC the bottom plate was earthing out the contacts, and preventing a spark.

Hope this helps in some way.

Mal.

[jimmyybob]

The twin points set up. best thing to do is start simple, close the points and with the ignition on flick them open with a screwdriver and see if they spark at all, if they do, go forward if they dont, go back.
The job is a whole lot easier with the radiator out.

[alf892]

Does anyone do an electronic conversion for these?

[oldfordman]

im building a distributorless system for the car,based on the ford edis 8 system from american fords and possibly late jag v8 engines,so if it works i will publish a link to show how i did it
thanks to everyone who has helped

[Ron B.]

I have an EDIS on my Mercedes 6.3 . It has unleashed even more power from this already powerful device.
I grew up with Ford sideys in New Zealand and in my teens I ran a '39 Ford standard with a '48 mercury engine. The best V8 dissy was always the crab and yes ,both the diving bell (or rugby ball) dissy and the crab dissy should ideally be set up on a Ford Distributor jig. .The engine you have has a pathetic dissy which is best gotten rid of and an EDIS used instead. Even in the 1950's they gave trouble and were a retrograde step compared with the earlier dissys which would run for years without a hitch.

[jimmyybob]

Ah i see, ive used EDIS in the form of a megajolt kit and most parts came from here...http://trigger-wheels.com/store/?gclid= ... fAodYFhsmg