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I have a blue flame 115 with a bad insulator where the coil wire connects to the points. (Through the distributor lower wall) Can that part be bought? I can’t imagine having to buy an entire distributor for that part. Also, what in heck is it called?

The parts book calls it a bushing, I always callewd them insulator blocks, There is an inner and an outer. They were used in 1953-1962 235 distributors. You should beable to pick-up a usesd distribuor cheap.

Thank you, I’ll change it out. The screw is froze up, maybe I can make something work once I pull it out and get it apart. Thanks a lot for the come back.

I was able to buy just the insulator from Steiner Tractor for one of my early John Deere’s that has a Delco distributor. It might be the same.

Thanks, I’ll give it a try. There has to be a way to make a repair without having to replace the whole distributor. I appreciate your input.

aamy sugestion was to find a cheap used unit and remove te desired parts....do not istall just any old used unit as the are idfferent advanc curves, etc.

That bushing was Delco-Remy part number 1878405. I put that in an ebay search and several repo's for tractors came up. You will have to judge if the repos will work.

Dave

That sounds good, I’ll look it up and thanks for the info.

Thank you, Gene, I didn’t realize that. I have a spare distributor I just don’t want to use it if I don’t need to. I can’t see how the little insulator comes apart. The bolt spins because the keeper on the insulator inside the distributor broke off. It seems like I should be able to push the bolt out but it acts like it has a shoulder or something stopping it.

You should check with the hobby vendors, Jim Carter, The Filling Station, and Chevys of the Fortys. Someone might have your part.

Mike

Thanks Mike, I did find one and while I’m waiting for it, I made one as a temporary. I appreciate your input.

To you and everyone else that helped me out I say thank you. I want to tell you what I found when I finally got the insulator out. What I found was an 8-32 nut, round on the outside so it can’t take a wrench and recessed into the outer half of the insulator. Because it’s recessed, you wouldn’t be able to get a wrench on it anyway. The outside face of the nut is slotted as if you would use a flat screwdriver except the stud would be in the way. After I saw what I had, I remembered that some of the old fords had a similar set up. The tool used was a screwdriver that was hollow in the middle to go on over the stud and catch the slots on either side, kind of like if you had two tiny screwdrivers, one on each side of the stud. It looks like you need to loosen it each time you change points.
Anyway, I made a temporary for the time being while I’m waiting for the new one to arrive. I’ll say again, I appreciate all the input from you and everyone else, thank you.

There was a tool made for this goofy nut deal.

I figured there must have been. Now I have to find out what it was called and where I can find one.

Gene, There are lots of tools made for us "goofy Nuts"

Mike

This happened to me on my 38. I went to change the points and the bushing disintegrated in my hand. I took one off a spare distributor to get it back together. I purchased new ones from Steiner. There are at least of couple of different styles but thank goodness someone is making these parts for old tractors. I am guessing that through the years these bushings probably caused some pretty awful problems as they started to degrade.