SUN Distributor Tester

[OilyRascal]

Up for sale locally overnight - I found it interesting and thought I'd share.  My apology for the poor picture.

[1930]

Thats one of those things that Id prob buy and then think to myself where am I gonna put this and why the heck did I buy it after getting it home.

[john k]

I was taught to run one of those at school.   Very handy to find problems with distributors, and setting the advance curve for the centrifugal and vacuum advance.   Everything SUN back then was pretty high quality. 

[johnsironsanctuary]

That is the only way that I know of to set the dwell on a 32 to 48 Ford V8.

[Lostmind]

I used one of those on a daily basis. I worked at an ignition/electrical shop
and we pulled the distributor on every tune up,cleaned it and replaced the points and condensor ,than tested and set it up in the machine. Good for checking and setting advance mechanism.
It would probably take me a while to remember how to do it now , but the whole tune up took about 1/2 hour than.
 Roy

[john k]

You mean that confounded double ended distributor you had to stand on your head to see?   I figured one just used a feeler gauge on those, if that was even possible.  Whole tuneup=1/2 hour?   No compression check?  No scope diagnostics with printout?   Different shops had different proceedures. 

[Nolatoolguy]

Thats one of those things that Id prob buy and then think to myself where am I gonna put this and why the heck did I buy it after getting it home.

Same here

I have alot of those ietams at home

[Lostmind]

Yes ,included compression test.
No print out ,didn't have one yet.
The Scope was for diagnosis on problem cars.
 Road test ., always.
Flat rate, 20 years old.

[Brad54]

I've got one of those... bought it a couple years ago and did a nice resto on it. Then promptly used it to discover the distributor in my wife's Corvair wagon was sloppy as hell, but one of the three spares that came with the car was good (bushings) and the advance wasn't far off from factory specs.

I still have to get a recurve kit for it and put it back on the machine.

I also need to get a pulse amplifier for it so I can set up the HEI in my '61 Suburban.

I'll probably use it 8 times in the rest of my life... but it sure will be fun to do the job right!
I'm confident a few of my friends will use it too, so that's always good. I have a lot of things I justify with "I'll get some use out of it, but my friend will too."

Where is that one located, and how much were they asking?

Mine looked about that dirty and nasty when I bought it... it's amazing what a lot of elbow grease, some WD40, Goo-Gone, Acetone, Windex and a soft-bristled brush will accomplish, while an SOS pad makes short work of the surface-rusted bare metal pieces. It's really amazing how much clean it was under 60 years' of grime.
-Brad

[OilyRascal]

Where is that one located, and how much were they asking?

It WAS located in north Louisiana and listed at $200.  The advert. has since been pulled.

[Provincial]

I have one like it, a 500, and the only thing wrong with it is that a PO hit the case of the vacuum gauge and broke off the outer side.  The gauge and lens are OK, but the black plastic housing is toast.