Then you can cut the arm off of the vacuum advance dashpot, and just leave it attached to the side of the distributor (or plug the hole if you prefer). Now you have a distributor with mechanical advance and no vacuum advance anymore

The dizzy on my 280Z has the centrifugal weights inside, but I don't see how they connect to the breaker plate to affect the spark advance? Any explanation on that before I reassemble? ( got my breaker plate- it's the "last one left in the U.S.")

thx

The distributor shaft is two pieces, the top that holds the reluctor can rotate up to 8.5 degrees independently from the bottom. The mechanical advance weights and springs are what controls the rotation. So the breaker plate has nothing to do with the mechanical advance. It is just a place to mount the stator to (if you've disabled the vacuum advance).

So there's something like a cam or lever in the shaft to advance the top section of the rotor shaft, and the vacuum advance advances it some more?

My weights are 9 degrees, btw.

Hold the bottom of the shaft. Grab the top of the shaft. Twist. Then you will know how it works.

Thanks a lot. Too much gunk in there to see what's happening.

One additional note......using heat to remove the recuctor is not a good idea, since heat can effect the strength of the magnatism in the reluctor......no magnatism, no trigger!

You'd have to get it kinda hot to affect the magnetism (if it is magnetic) so a little warming won't hurt it.

Now if I could only figure out what the 'contactor' part is supposed to do... The FSM says it's supposed to counteract the tendency of the magnetic field to advance even more at higher RPMs...