Need distributor info

[oldger]

New guy here ... I have a 715 engine with 28K miles on it and is spotless ... I am knowledgeable about engines and ignitions having built several for myself and others ... However, the distributor with the attached cavity and sealed wires are different ... I had to buy a 24 volt coil but what I think is the coil wire has no end that fits in the coil which has a strange to me connection ... what is the cylindrical void for ... I assume the other wire is a ground for the points ... I am going to put it in a CJ street rod on an S-10 chassis ... what are the vacuum lines going into the void for ... It is a bit different and I could use some help and maybe a visual image ... Thanks

[brute4c]

If the void on the coil you refer to is the dimple in the center of it...the military stuff is different eh?...any way...
The distributor and coil on a stock truck are in a single housing...called an Ignitor Housing. The coil fits in one side and the distributor in the other....the cap is screwed to the bottom of the lid of the ignitor housing. The cap has the regular round part one would expect, with an arm that sticks out to the side and has a spring on the bottom that fits in the dimple on the coil and acts as the coil wire in civilian units...pics...

This is what you should see when the lid is taken off the ignitor housing.
1 Condenser
2 Lubrication wick
3 Breaker arm pivot
4 Breaker points
5 Coil
6 Stationary contact
7 Adjusting screw
8 Breaker cam

Here is the best shot I see of the distributor cap in the manuals:

Number 2 is the cap and the arm that has the spring on the bottom that sits in the dimple on top of the coil is shown, pointing away from you in the drawing.

There is a lot of info like this in the Online Maintenance Manual section linked at the top of the page. The -10 manual is an owners manual basically, in the military vehicle sense. The -20 is the easier maintenance that could be done in the field. The -34 is the more involved stuff that had to go to "the shop" for. The -34P is the Parts Manual and has detailed exploded views of the systems and subsystems with listings giving item names and sometimes specs. Feel free to familiarize your self with that stuff...it is very helpful and thats why it is there, free for everyone!

There is a list that has all the vacuum lines detailed in the Online Maintenance Manuals section as well as many other things...hopefully this gets you started...

Keep asking for help when you need though...we love to help and get things right for those who love these trucks!

Did I say welcome aboard?? I should have at the top...glad you found us!

[oldger]

Thank you for that info and manual references ... I wasn't sure what manuals to access and now I am good to go. I want to keep the 24 volt start and run setup and go to 12 volts for non-engine functions. This is a sweet engine that was given to me. I have a carb kit and will tackle that this week with changes to the spacer under it that I'm told was a governing device.
The lack of a vacuum advance is different but I've worked with mechanical advance before.
Thanks again for the help

[Don Cavey]

Keep in mind that the #4 in the second picture, the round object with two wires is a ballast resistor. Most of the ignitors that I have seen do NOT have the ballast. Apparently that function was built into the coil. I had an NOS ignitor and it did not have the ballast and the ignitor in my truck does not have a ballast resistor.

[oldger]

Thanks again ... I bought a 24 volt coil (one of the chrome Chinese ones) because I would like to keep it 24 volts. It had been crudely converted to 12 volt ignition so now I need a new 24 volt distributor cap. My local autoparts can get the points, condenser, and rotor. Where do I go for a distributor cap?

[oldger]

Well, I kept looking through archives here and found a reference to an Ebay site. That led me to a different listing site and there it was, about $55.00 to my door and the guy has 4 more.
I should have gotten an extra one but that isn't in the cards right now. This is an interesting engine. Thanks for all the help.