1650 Holley Distributor

[Kerwin]

What are the signs that indicate a distributor is past its prime? Still fighting an issue with my 1650 gas. Just wondering what the symptoms are for a bad Holley?

First it was starting to periodically stumble while in use, then it progressed to not being able to start it or keep it running once started. Put in a new dist cap, coil, set points, and gapped plugs and it was running great. Not even one pass cutting hay tonight and it crapped out again and wouldn't start/stay running. Gas at carb and carb has been cleaned. The way it cuts out and then won't even fire points me to something in the ignition, but the only thing remaining is the Holley dist.

 

[Gambles]

I would clamp on a dwell meter and watch the meter while your tractor was running. That would tell you if you had ignition problems. Used to be that every mechanic shop had a good one, but now they are rare. eBay would probably be a current source to buy a used one.

 

[CraigWis]

I had problems with the Distributor on my 1550 The vaccum advance plate would jam up and the point gap would change after running a few hours. Try setting the points and disconnect the Vaccum line and see how it runs. If it helps you may have to lock the Advance plate to the Plate that holds the points so that it don't move. You will lose some timming advance so you will have to advance the dist. a little

 

[Kerwin]

Thanks for the suggestions. I did the fix of screwing down the vacuum advance plate in the distributor last summer. Tractor had started to cut in and out while running and point gap was getting messed up.

Are there any internal parts in the Holley that can wear and not work properly?

 

[80 acres]

My 1650 ran like crap, good one minute, bad the next. Could'nt figure it out so called a mechanic. Base plate was so worn out he said to get a Delco replacement from Korves. Can't believe the difference it made. Mowed hay and never stumbled once. Very happy.

 

[Kerwin]

So after replacing the distributor cap, gapping points, etc., I finally replaced the distributor and that solved the problem. Tractor starts well and runs without cutting out as it had been.

However, now it doesn't want to run at low idle. It did when I first put the distributor on a couple of weeks ago, but when I went to cut hay over the weekend it will run like a hit and miss engine when under 1000 rpm. But it doesn't sound like it's missing on several cylinders, more like run, stop, run, stop, etc. Kind of bouncing from 1000 to nothing, back and forth. Under load there is no issue. Thoughts?

Plugs were replaced and gapped correctly before installing the new distributor.

 

[greg krush]

I would check points, have seen them close up pretty quickly when new.

 

[scootergmc]

That's odd. Makes me think a fuel issue, like the float is just a hair out of adjustment. Otherwise my mind says check/clean all your grounds, assuming that point gap is still good.

 

[trackrat]

We had an 1800a years ago when the points wore it would just die nothing you did would help it until you put in new points, SPLANE THAT