1934 Radiator Shells

Down and dirty version of how to identify a '34 radiator shell from an eBay correspondence...

The Radiator Shell pictured is a One Year Only 1934 Ford Pickup/Panel Delivery/Big Truck. It is Missing the Stainless Steel Grill Trim, the Holes in the shell is for the Grill Trim Clips, also it's Missing the Chrome BullNose that has a Ford Script Blue Emblem.

Valve Adjustments

If you have adjustable lifters, the best method is the "9" method.

Number valves from front to back 1 through 8.

It is fairly easy to determine when a valve is at the top of it's lift. When you have reached that position on #1 valve you adjust the corresponding valve to equal "9". In this case it's #8 valve.

Continue with 2&7, 3&6, 4&5, 5&4, 6&3, 7&2 and finallly 8&1.

If you use different clearances for intake and exhaust, you need to pay attention. I put a piece of masking tape along the bottom of the ports and mark the settings there and cross them off as I finish.

First of all, forget about where the pistons are at. The tappets (push rod as Ford called them) must be adjusted with thin wrenches when they are on the peak of the cam lobe, and the clearance must be checked when they are on the heel (lowest point). Hand crank the engine a few times and watch the valve stems and you will see this.
Ideally, you would want to adjust the gap when the valve tappet was on the heel of the lobe and the gap could be measured with feelers. Unfortunately, the tappet adjustments are not accessible at that position, and the cam must be rotated and the tappet raised to make an adjustment. At that point the tappet can be adjusted, but the gap cannot be checked. Thus a lot of cranking is typically required.

Here's the trick:

Valves are numbered one through eight from front to back. For whichever valve tappet is on a cam lobe peak at a given instance, there is another valve tappet which is on its lobe's heel.
By knowing the relationship between the valves, (Rule Of Nine), you can do two things at once and adjust and measure multiple valves in steady progression (if you keep track of things). This will greatly minimize the amount of cranking and adjusting necessary.

The way the Rule Of Nine relationship works is like this: If for instance #6 valve is full open, then it can be adjusted with wrenches. Also at the same time the #3 valve tappet ("9" minus "6" equals "3") is on the heel of its cam lobe and its gap can be measured at the same time as #6 is being adjusted.
Now crank a little more until a different valve is full up, and adjust it and/or measure the gap on the other valve tappet whose sum equals "9" (e.g. if #2 is full up, then #7 can be measured, and #2 could also be adjusted if you know how much). Keep cranking until a different valve is up, and adjust it and measure the gap of the one whose sum equals "9".
Adjustable self-locking valve tappets have a 24 pitch bolt, which means that one revolution of the bolt equals changing the gap 0.042 inch. Since the bolt head has six wrench faces, it is fairly easy to estimate rotating the bolt 1/6 of a revolution, or one face, or 0.007 inch.
Furthermore, with a little eyeball engineering, you can guesstimate 1/3rd of a rev of a hex bolt wrench face with the two wrenches in your hand. This is ~0.002 inch of valve gap adjustment per wrench face.
With a little practice, you can measure and record the gap when the valve tappet is on its heel, and can adjust it to within 0.002 inch of where you want it the very first time that same valve is on its peak.
This can really minimize the amount of hand cranking necessary when the engine is in the car. If the engine is on a stand, then perhaps a lot of cranking is not such a big deal.
This procedure works very well on Model A cams, and pretty well on Model B cams, though B cams have a slightly different lobe separation angle and the 'down valve' is not as centered on the heel when the other valve is at its peak.

Recommended Tappet Clearance (inches)
Camshaft Design	Intake Valve Clearance (gap)	Exhaust Valve Clearance (gap)
Model A A-6250	0.015	0.015
Model B B-6250	0.015	0.022
Stipe IB330	0.012	0.012

The table above shows the recommended design push rod clearances (cold) for several cam profiles. A typical clearance setting of 0.013 intake and 0.015 exhaust is also commonly used by many people, and also used when the cam profile or the cam grinder's recommendation is unknown.
It is best to avoid setting the exhaust gap too small, as this can create insufficient heat transfer time of the valves on the seats and burn the exhaust valves. Linear expansion of a hot exhaust valve also decreases clearances at a higher rate compared to an intake valve.




Resources:  http://www.fordgarage.com/pages/ruleofnine.htm

Adjusting the Mallory Model A Distributor YL11A2

this is part of a conversation i followed over at the Fordbarn.com regarding Mallory YL11A2 Distributors...

Setting the timing with a Mallory distributor is fairly easy.. The easiest way is when the timing pin drops in place, where ever the rotor tip is pointing will be number one time. The distributor can easily be rotated as in modern cars and set the plug wires as needed. The firing order is 1243 . I tune mine by ear, some buy a kit and use a timing light . I set mine as advanced as I can without starter kickback when cranking and no timing knocks. A little tweaking or rotating as needed with the timing will get er done, works for me. Usually the rotor tip ends up pointing where number 4 would normally be. If you want number one timing to be where it would be with the model A distributor , it will be more complicated. You will need to remove the valve cover and the oil pump and distributor drive assembly. With the drive assembly removed, you can stick a long straight blade screwdriver down through the head and down to the oil pump and turn the pump as needed for the drive assembly to align as necessary for the rotor to align as wanted. The points cam isn't adjustable on the Mallory distributors.

The only part that I have ever needed with my Mallory distributors was the condenser. I am using Ford V8 condensers with mine., the same condenser used with the so called modern points that the model A venders sell.. Bubbas ignition has Mallory parts but I don't have an address or phone number.

I got my first Mallory distributor from Harrys model A parts in Oregon in the early 90s . Harry told me that They had run these distributors for over 30.000 miles without having to do anything. Mine have been trouble free. This is the distributor that was used in the dyno tests with the Brumfield heads back in the ninties. The dual point Mallory was shown to give horsepower increases at low to mid RPM range. I had installed float-A-motor mounts in the coupe and there was quiet a bit of cl;utch chatter when taking off. After installing the Mallory distributor, the chatter went away completely. I was talking to Ken Miller and he felt that the Mallory distributor advanced so smoothly that it removed the chatter. Just an example of the smoothness of the advance. 

 

Mallory 24895 Condenser for YL 11A2 Distributor

Source:  http://fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=140570

Distributor: Mallory Interchangeable Parts

Since there have been a few threads lately about the old brown or black 2 piece Mallory caps and buying them at swap meets, I thought I’d share a little info to help make sure you get the correct rotor for the cap. Yes, there is a difference.

Somewhere along the line Mallory made a change to the contacts on the inside of the cap. Initially they were simply flat on the bottom of the contact. Then they made them with a notch. This change required that the contact strip on the rotor be shortened. If you put an “old” long rotor under a “newer” cap, it will hit. I’ll show you the difference in rotors in the pictures.

From what I can tell, all the brown caps are the older flat type contact. The 8 cylinder caps have the part number 24004 cast into the inside. Sometime after the switch to the black plastic cap, they changed the contact design. When they made this change, they also changed the part number in the cap to be 4004. They simply ground off the 2 on the old design’s number, which can easily be seen on most caps. Of the approximately dozen black caps that I have owned, I only have 1 black cap that is the older 24004 style. Now, when I say that the newer cap has a 4004 number, that is NOT the number that the cap is marketed/sold under. That is simply the part number of the LOWER section of the cap. The whole 2 piece unit is actually 4001. I do not know the part number for the “older” variety, maybe 24001?

Now the rotors. I am aware of 3 different versions. The longer one used with the 24004 flat contact cap, and 2 other short variations that are interchangeable and used with the 4004 cap. The longer version that goes with the flat contact 24004 cap has the number 24215B cast into it. The contact strip has a fat tip, and under the contact strip is a piece of spring steel that allows the strip to flex up and down on the rivet. The rotors I have seen like this have all been brown. The other 2 shorter versions used on the 4004 cap both have the 4215 cast into them, again showing signs of where the 2 and B of the earlier style were removed. One version has a fat tip, and the other has a narrow tip. None have the spring steel and are solidly riveted in place. All the fat tip ones I’ve seen are brown. I’ve seen both brown and black narrow tips. The actual part number on a package for the short rotor is 4215C. I’d assume the “older” long part number would be 24215 and a letter?

In the pictures of the rotors, the left is the longer 24215B version. The other 2 are the short varieties. I’ve also shown a picture of the many different types of packaging the rotors where in over the years to help you spot them at swap meets.

I couldn’t get any good close up pictures to show the differences in the contacts, but in the brown cap photo, you can at least see where the number is located. Again, I’ve also shown a picture of 2 different boxes the caps came in.

I hope this helps you get the correct cap and rotor for your Mallory. I’m not an expert in Mallory’s by any means, just a guy who’s got a fetish for them. Some guys like wheels, some gauges, some intakes. I like 2 piece Mallorys.

Source: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=238386&highlight=mallory+cap