VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 Where's my spark ?

That all depends upon the manufacturer of the aftermarket electrolock. There are some aftermarket electrolocks that have small terminal ends and the terminal cup is too large to fit as it should. I have restored several like that in the past and I had to make bushings to fit inside of the terminal cup to take up the space so that the terminal cup would fit correctly on the smaller size aftermarket electrolock.

One of the bright guys on Chatter was talking about making an insulator for the inside of the distributor from an old paint rattle can cap. It really works great. Try to look for the thread as it gives a good discription of how to cut it so that there's some insulation below the breaker arm area too.

Happy Motoring!

It is easy to make an insulator from a rattle can top. Select one approximately the same diameter as the ID of the distributor body. Measure the depth from the distributor top edge to the points plate. Cut the bottom from the cap at same distance as measured or a tad less. Cut three equal sections from the bottom of the cap. Cut the bottom of the bottom so there is a tab about 3/4" wide at the counter-clockwise end. Drill a hole matching the hole for the stud coming through the distributor from the electrolock. You are done. The tab protects the nut and washer from shorting and the long part insulates the spring from point set from the distributor body.

You just saved me a lot of searching.

I have made a ton of those insulators from rattle can tops. Have also made a bunch from thick gasket material. Both work well but the gasket material ones ship better.

I was doing a tune up on my 31 and found all this advice helpful.
In addition I found I had to add a thin plastic washer under the point arm with the spring. It seemed to be shorting to the base plate The point arm comes with a insulated ferrule and mounts to the post. I made the plastic washer with a hole the size of the outer diameter of the ferrule. In addition to everything else mentioned here this helped me get my spark back.

Cool! Glad that you found the problem and were able to fix it!

Thanks for giving us an update.