At the present time there are I think 3 distributors in the classified section of this forum.  I know nothing of them or who is offering them. I think they  have been on the block for 2 days now.


64F100 57FAIRLANE500

Given that there is probably now a shortage of distributors available, prices for good used and rebuildable cores will probably go up.  So be careful about passing over something that may seem expensive, particularly if it is needed.


Lawrenceville, GA

I have to look at my "Cardone" distributor again. I do recall it was an actual FoMoCo unit so I need to take a look for the date code to see what year the case is.
I pondered the 57 distributor on ebay but $200 seems too much.

I guess it's a 1960 distributor  because of the C0AF prefix. The date code on it is 0DD which looks "ODD"
It was tricky to see. I had to use a mirror and then took a photo of the image visible in the mirror so I could see what was on the distributor.


~DJ~ AKA "Bleach"
1956 Ford Fairlane Town Sedan 30K original miles

I'll do it. I checked to make sure I didn't throw the cardone housing away (I didn't) but didn't feel like getting involved in it again at the moment. I've had enough "distributor drama" to last for a good while! Maybe tomorrow I'll take some detailed measurements and post a couple pics, after a good stiff drink ha ha.

It seems to me the length of the upper part of the distributor shaft in the cap, might be an issue as well, I recall just idly eyeballing things messing around one day and wondering if the rotor would end up a little too high in the cap. Or maybe it's the ersatz distributors where that's the problem? Can't remember, they are slightly different though. Stay tuned.

Tedster, that's what I was getting at. Will the old style shaft designed for the kidney weights work in the triangle distributor?  Just a few minutes ago found a 302 triangle distributor in the junk pile and looking inside, it doesn't appear to be a deep enough bowl for the thick bulky kidney weights. If you could drop that shaft in the triangle strib to  test this theory would be much appreciated.  I don't think Cargone knows what to do here  I hope everyone with incorrect "Frankenstein" stribs can at least recover their investment. BTW, can anyone come up with a part number for the Y-block shaft designed tor the later triangle distributor?   Thanks, JEFF...............


64F100 57FAIRLANE500

The Ford service replacement distributors available later were of the triangle shape housing, and had the later wedge shaped flyweights. I have a Cardone housing and the older style replacement distributor shaft, didn't think to measure the overall dimensions carefully as I never envisioned using the two together. I could take some measurements, to see if they would work. I think it would just be a matter of correct gear placement but I'm not sure.

The Cardone housing is actually of the two (upper/lower) bushing design, but they omit the lower bushing. Very much doubt they replace the upper either. So many things wrong...

I put together a completely rebuilt distributor, just need to find a drill press (or buy one) to make a clean installation of the collar and gear. With new parts installed there is no perceptible radial or side play, something that was really important when mechanical points were in wide use. I've seen some websites suggest up to .006" is acceptable, that's nonsense! The dwell, and thus the timing, will be all over the place.

Thanks for the pics, provides a lot of information. Very difficult for me to see details in the photo of the Cardone but is the coil wire connected to ground and the ground wire connected to the points? Not sure about the "plug" on the side. I always thought the stribs with the triangle neck used the wedge style fly weights as opposed to the kidney shaped weights. Please correct me if I'm wrong. My thoughts were: Buy the shaft, B7A-12175-A that someone posted earlier and fit it to the Cardone strib. I looked at the picture of the NOS shaft and it is made for the kidney fly weights so it could not simply be installed is the triangle neck stribs. These stribs have much shallower bowls and were later used for Duraspark applications. I thought Green Bird some time ago may have said the triangle stribs were offered as service replacements for Ford Y-blocks. If so, then correct length shafts were at one time  made for the triangle stribs.. But the shaft, if it ever was available separately, would be a different part number. All my parts catalogs end at around 1974. Maybe someone with later catalogs could check?  I'm not trying to add confusion (although I'm good at that) but just looking for an inexpensive way to make this right for us Y-blockers and take a few stribs out of the scrap pile and make them once again, usable. Now that I learned the 57 style shaft is available for a very reasonable price, $20? add a new bushing and most stribes could be rebuilt, Looks like there is a high quality strib available but is over $500?


64F100 57FAIRLANE500

Some generic photo and shows the quality, vacuum advance with one phillips and on slotted screw and what is the rubber plug on the left side, ground wire with a loop laying against the cam.  LMAO..

Here is a photo of two distributors side by side.  The one on the left is the Carbone Frankenstein I bought last year from Mac's.  The one on the right is a stock 1957 ball bearing advance plate Y Block distributor.  As you can see, the shaft on the Carbone distributor is 1/4" shorter and the distributor gear sits higher.  The gear on the Carbone unit does not sit on the machined trust surface in the block.  The gear is being limited by the distributor case where little lubrication exists.  You can also see major differences in the castings.  If you have the one on the left in a Y block, you should replace it. Good luck getting it replaced under warranty.




Here is a photo from Carbone showing the Frankenstein Y Block distributor.  They claim the fit and  function is the same.  Clearly it is not!

Earlier in this thread a pic was posted comparing a SBF to a Y-block strib. It's difficult to see precisely but the SBF strib with the triangular neck appears to be a small amount taller. Even the cap looks to be higher than the cap on the Y- block strib.  If indeed that SBF strib is taller with a slightly higher bowl, then even the correct B7A-17175-A  shaft would come up short.  I have to question all the parts these Cardone Frankenstein stribs were assembled with.


64F100 57FAIRLANE500