rcv

Can/will Nissan dealerships actually track down vintage parts? I never really considered I could walk into my local "Nissan of Van Nuys" and expect them to find me a part for a 50 year old car.

Yeah, the FSM I have has two little arrows pointing from the "Governor Spring" label. Without a second spring one of the weights would just be flopping around in there which would be a really weird design. Plus, I found an extra terminal nut loose in the bottom of the distributor when I pulled it apart, so I think the last person who worked on this thing just wasn't paying attention.

Good to know - at least they got back to me quickly about not having the parts in stock.

Welp, I just got an email from "NissanPartsDeal" - I should have known from their generic sounding name, but they basically just list every part ever made regardless of whether they have them in stock. I'm betting I could find a NOS OEM '08 Model-T hand crank listed if I bothered looking. @Captain Obvious I'll take you up on your springs if the offer is still open. I'll send you a DM with my shipping info and I'll happily paypal you for the shipping. @Av8ferg I definitely appreciate the offer - I'm going to go against my pack-rat instincts and avoid hoarding springs for now though. I'll definitely reach back out if I can't make this other set work. I'm going to order a new breaker plate from ZCarDepot as well as a new set of points and a condensor and hopefully I can Frankenstein this thing to life. Thanks for all of the help so far everyone!

Welp, I just got an email from "NissanPartsDeal" - I should have known from their generic sounding name, but they basically just list every part ever made regardless of whether they have them in stock. I'm betting I could find a NOS OEM '08 Model-T hand crank listed if I bothered looking. @Captain Obvious I'll take you up on your springs if the offer is still open. I'll send you a DM with my shipping info and I'll happily paypal you for the shipping. @Av8ferg I definitely appreciate the offer - I'm going to go against my pack-rat instincts and avoid hoarding springs for now though. I'll definitely reach back out if I can't make this other set work. I'm going to order a new breaker plate from ZCarDepot as well as a new set of points and a condensor and hopefully I can Frankenstein this thing to life. Thanks for all of the help so far everyone!

I also found the two spring parts (22110-E4602 and 22110-N3300) on concord-parts.com when I was hunting around late last night. I have no idea if these guys are legit, but they only take payment by "Wire Transfer" which was more hassle than I wanted to deal with at midnight. I emailed them at least to see if they actually have those parts, so I'll post their response here in case anyone else is in my same situation.

Nice find @Zed Head! I just ordered it so we'll see what I get. It looks like these guys are only a few miles from me in El Monte, so I can storm over there with my N95 on and demand a refund if they just sold me a spring for $100. @Captain Obvious I'll save you the trip to the post office until I see what arrives from nissanpartsdeal.com - I may come begging again though if this turns out to be a bust. I very much appreciate the offer!

It looks like mine is a D612-52. If yours has compatible parts I'd happily take it off your hands. Send me a DM and we can talk details if you're up for letting it go. I'm definitely in favor of using this distributor for a while until I go off the deep end with something more extreme. Even then I like the idea of having a trusty mechanical distributor in the glovebox in case the electronics breakdown (or someone lights off an EMP ?). If you're parts aren't compatible I'd still like to try to revive this thing. Has anyone tried finding the right springs on e.g. McMaster-Carr? I figure if I can find the specs (k-value, free length, diameter, etc) for the originals I should be able to find a suitable replacement somewhere.

@Captain Obvious you definitely lived up to your name, the distributor was filthy on the inside. I was able to clean it up pretty well, and now it snaps back as expected: There are two pieces of bad news though: 1) One of the springs is completely missing. Nobody seems to have these in stock anywhere. I suppose I could run with just one spring for a while, but it's not ideal. 2) The breaker plate assembly is pretty locked up. I didn't try pulling it apart, but I give it a 50/50 chance I lose those little bearing balls when I do. I can also buy a "new" one for $50. So, my question to you veterans is what's your advice? My immediate goal is to get the car up and running and drivable so I can have a little fun before I start dumping too much (more!) money into it. Longer term I've been following @jonbill's speeduino progress which looks like a ton of fun, so I'm not too excited about dumping $600 on any of the fancy new distributors (123, Kameari, etc). Is it worth retrofitting a cardone 280zx unit, or am I better off getting that new breaker plate and running with 1 spring? I've heard good things about Advanced Distributors rebuilds but I'm betting they're spendy and the lead time is 6-9 weeks which is a bummer.

Sounds about on-par with everything else on the car. I'll pull it apart as soon as I can and hopefully a little PB Blaster and elbow grease will loosen it up.

Great thanks @Zed Head - I'll inspect it in the next few days and report back. Hopefully the springs aren't shot, as a quick look at my usual online stores (zcardepot / zcarsource/ MSA) don't show any for sale.

@jonbill Nope, the rotor feels pretty much the same twisting CW and CCW, and it just barely springs back when I let it go.

Thanks, Jon. So at their most open, the points should be 0.5mm apart? Once I've got that set, then I should rotate all the way CCW and then CW until the points just barely open? Also, any thoughts on being able able to rotate my rotor a few degrees by hand without moving the rest of the distributor? Is that normal?

I'm getting close to completion on my first engine rebuild. I'm trying to set up the timing using the original distributor following Tom Monroe's instructions and I have some questions. He says: I must be dense because I just don't get what he's trying to tell me. If the the gap is already 0.5mm when the distributor is rotated all the way CCW, then what should it be when it "just begins to open"? More than 0.5mm or less? This is my first time setting up a distributor so I'm thoroughly confused. My points are measuring 0.25mm when the unit is rotated all the way CCW so I'm guessing I should adjust that. Also, I can actually rotate my rotor around 10 degrees without moving the housing (or crankshaft for that matter). Is that expected, or is my distributor shot? Here's a video of me messing with it: https://youtu.be/8ve-9dZ30k8 To be honest, I'm terrified of melting my engine with incorrect timing so any advice is appreciated.

Do you remember about how much you paid?