Hello I am new here. I stumbled across this site while looking for a new distributer for the professormobile. I was just out doing a tune up and noticed while I was changing the points that the distributer shaft was really wobbly in there. Oh well. I always wanted to go electronic anyway. Some background: My car is a 73 4 door electra. We got it from a dealership I worked at about 4 years ago. It was driven for 1 year when it was new and parked in the showroom where it sat with only 20,000 miles on it till we got it. My wife was driving a 98 ford escort and one rainy day on here way home as she was crossing a 1 lane covered bridge she was hit head on by a drunk guy in a pickup truck. He blew right through the stop sign on his end and smacked her so hard the escort was totaled. All he got was a scratched bumper. My wifes air bags and seat belt saved her and she was able to walk away. Thank god! After the <a href="http://go-advertising.com?go=insurance" onmouseover="window.status = 'goto: insurance';return 1" onmouseout="window.status=''">insurance</a> company told us they were gonna total the escort she told me to go find her a big car that can destroy a pickup truck. Well I knew right where one was. I asked the owner and he agreed to sell it to me for full original sticker price. I couldn't talk him down but oh well. It still had the original plastic and window stickers and all. Well I drove it home and it smoked and backfired all the way. Every gasket and seal in it had rotted from sitting so long. I ended up having to pull the motor and trans out and reseal every thing. I also had problems finding an egr so It now has an edelbrock performer intake. Also thanks to the carb being a POS is also has a 80555s 750 holley. I drilled and tapped all the air holes and put in 3/8 set screws and did every thing right. It ran absolutely awsome till we moved to lubbock. There in Pa we were below sea level and now we are 3000 feet above sea level. I have gone down 4 sizes on the main jets, put the next heavier secondary spring in, tuned it up and I still am having trouble with a little light black smoke at full throttle. This sistributer may have something to do with it but I think for this altitude the 750 just may be too big. Any thoughts? I also need to know what kind of electronic ignitions you all prefer. I am looking for an msd so I can keep it the same as the trucks. Do they even make one for a buick 455? I know mallory makes a comp 9000 but I have no experience with them. I absolutely refuse to buy a HEI at any of the local parts stores. I hate the wells brand stuff and that's all anyone has around here. Last week I put 2 new wells dist caps and rotors on motors I overhauled in a 96 and 98 tahoe. These are those peice of junk plastic distributers that normaly break a screw hole off if you aren't really careful. Well I kept getting a cam position problem and couldn't get the distributer close enough to get it to time. I finaly put on one of the old worn out factory caps and problem solved. I couldn't beleive I got two bad caps in a row but that's why I don't buy wells for my cars. Well if anyone has any ideas for my carb and distributer please let me know asap. My wife is a college professor and she hates driving my truck. It doesn't fit her status in life I guess as well as the buick. It is driving well enough now with the new points and cap and rotor and all of it is ac delco but even with dwell right on 30 and timing at 4 it still just doesn't feel right. The dwell needle is fluctuating some at idle but will smooth out at higher rpm. That's the shaft wobbling. It needs to be super reliable for the wife or else she may use that fire extinguisher under the glove box up side it's hood! Oh here's a pic of our car. I know it's not the typical street rod but it ain't been whipped yet. Don't ever let size fool ya!
New Guy(please post your name) The Quadrajet is a much maligned carb, but built right, there is nothing better for a sreet car. John Osborne will do it right. If you still have the old carb, give him a call. He'll set it up right and rebuild it for you. 270-737-4467, JOP455@aol.com As far as your distributor goes, Dave Ray is your guy. Lots of guys on this BB have used his services, and he does super work at very reasonable prices. Check his website at www.davessmallbodyheis.com Go for the MSD trigger conversion on your points distributor, and plug it right in to a 6AL. You won't be sorry.
I still have the qjet but it will never see another car again. Even though it only had 20000 miles on it there was too much clearance in the throttle shafts. It sucked air like crazy. I wonder if it even came from this car. I have a feeling it didn't with those shafts like that. Probably someone wanted to make it run at the dealer once and swaped it with another one. I got a bushing kit still in my tool box from all the years I have worked for gm but it just ain't worth it. I tried rebuilding it at first but the power piston was stuck solid and then I couldn't find one to save my life. I really hate them things. Holleys I like alot. Edelbrocks I can tolerate but prefer holleys. I am gonna go and see if I can find the shooter kit in my garage and go smaller on them and see what happens. I just went for a drive and now the only time it puffs smoke is when the choke is still partialy closed. I am getting somewhere. About the distributer. I thought the buick ones didn't have bushings in them. If it does then I need to rebuild this one before I can do this conversion. It is really getting wobbly. I had to make a new shaft for my tractor and a new bushing for the distributer when it had this problem. I was looking really for a whole drop in replacement but if you guys can help me get the stuff to rebuild it I will certainly go that way. I can't wait to get rid of the points.
Go to the website and take a look. Dave completely rebuilds your distributor, hard chromes the shaft, curves it to your specs, installs a brand new vacuum advance, installs a MSD magnetic pickup assembly, and gives you a primo cap with brass contacts, all for under 150.00. I have one in my car, and I run an MSD digital 6+ off it. Send him your distributor, you won't be sorry.
And send the qjet to John Osborne - John Osborne Quadrajet Performance Mod and Rebuild Specialist 270-737-4467 JOP455@AOL.COM EDIT: Oops, I see Larry has already posted the infor for John:error: You won't be disappointed with either Dave or John.
Nice looking '73 you got there. I also can recommend Dave Ray. He just did my distributor and I am very happy (see pic below). You also could stand to advance your timing a bit. 4 degrees is the factory setting for a standard 455, but it likes more. Set yours to 8-10 initial, and you will immedietley notice an increase in power. I know Q-Jets can get a bad rap, but they are good carbs. I put a rebuilt one on my car and it runs great w/ it. No bogs and decent gas mileage considering (I got 17 mpg on the highway). I plan on sending it to John Osborne when the time comes.
Nice looking job on that distributer. I wish I could send him mine but it is a daily driver for my wife and I am rebuilding engines right now for both my trucks so we can't really have it down too. Have you had any experience with the msd pro billet distributers. I can get them at work I found out. I also found that mallory makes a comp 9000. I had a unilite once and it was pretty nice. Oh the gas. I can't go any higher than about 6 or it pings. It was a 92 min octane car to begin with and the gas around here really sucks. 91 is the most there is. It does run better on about 8 though when I can get the gas to back it up. The altitude doesn't help much either. It still get's a lot of attention though. I had some kid in a camaro try to take me across an intersection tonight. I hope his girl was impressed when my 6000 pound lead slead tore him a new tail. All he saw was a little smoke from the tires and my taillights. I normaly don't do things like that but I just rebuilt the carb and tuned it up and I had the oportunity to test it out. I couldn't help it!
I would try to get a used distributor then to send to Dave. My 225 is also my daily driver, so I couldn't have it down either. I asked on this board for a dist., and got one for $20 from tgxwildcat, who even shipped it directly to Dave for me. Embarrasing camaros at intersections is fun :laugh: . If you ever have any specific question on your '73, feel free to ask. I'm pretty familiar w/mine.
I hate to ask this, but are you planning on getting rid of that Q-jet? I am seeking a 800cfm unit. Thanks.
About the qjet: It really isn't fixable. The bore the power piston rides in is all scratched up and I swear there is enough play in the throttle shafts to idle it at almost 2000 rpm. Even if I bushed it it would still be a peice of junk. Atualy I would need to replace the front throttle shaft and possibly the rear too. I have another one on the engine from the 73 two door I got for parts out at a freinds farm in pennsylvania. He has been storing a bunch of stuff I just couldn't fit in the trucks when we moved. I don't know when we will be able to go get it but I will definitly keep you in mind wen I do. He actualy has two of my engines out there that I need right now and my engine crane. I just had to go buy another one of those. The 455 had a good distributer in it too. Oh well. Both my trucks engines are bad right now and I had to go buy cores to rebuild for them. That is ok though because the ford is about to go from a 5.0 to a 5.8 and the chevy from 5.0 to 5.7. The chevy is sopposed to be a 350 since it a 3/4 ton but some nut put a new 305 target motor in it and I got fooled when I bought it. Let me ask you guys this. I read on that web site about how he uses comonly available parts for the trigger conversion but I was wondering if I break down in barstow california on a holiday weekend and mom and pops auto parts is the only thing open am I gonna be able to get parts for it? We do a lot of trips out west and all over texas in this car. So far It has never stranded us but I have had to stop and replace belts, alternator, fuel pump and stuff like that before. The simpler the better when you are in the middle of nowhere if you need parts. Once in memphis when we were visiting family the factory air compressor diaphram went bad and I couldn't get the part to fix that but I got lucky and found the coil springs and shocks to convert it from air to standard. That was fun in my dads driveway in the snow.
Dan, The only thing that could go bad in the distributor would be the magnetic pick-up assembly, and they are extremely reliable. The pick-up Dave uses is the same one that MSD uses in their Billet units. It is MSD part # 8466. If you were worried, you could buy an extra from MSD and keep it in the glovebox. I believe it is also the pickup used in Ford Duraspark units, although the Ford part needs to be modified a bit to use in the Delco distributor. I would just get a spare distributor from the boneyard and send it to Dave, like Zach suggested.
Well I called EVERY bone yard in the area yesterday within 100 miles or so. And can you beleive there ain't one 455 buick or any compatible distributers to be had anywhere? A couple of the junk yards told me they all got scrapped long ago. I seem to remember hearing a lot of that a couple years ago when my wife hit a deer and I needed a fender. I ended up having to buy 3 fenders and cutting and welding all the unrusted peices together to make one whole one. It came out nice though. I guess it's gonna be the msd distributer for it. I sure wish I could get a hold of the guy in pa that is storing all my stuff. He's mennonite and doesn't have a phone. oH WELL!
i've got a 455 points style distributor from a 72, let me know if you are interested. you'll need to swap your gear on, I needed to use it for an HEI dist swap that had a 350 gear on it i can send it directly to Dave if you want since we are both in CA
