The dist. code on my '69 is 9G15, which would be July 15th of 1969... if I decoded it right. It does not fit my build date, which is the fifth week of May 1969 (it was sold in June of '69). My question is: did they skip letters of the alphabet when stamping the distributors to avoid confusion with similar letters like i & j, which, if not stamped right, could be mistaken for one or the other? I have a 1111975 which is 1970, but as my car is a late build (May/1969) it could be correct for my car. I have seen this dist. number listed in some sources as correct for a 1969 W31.

 

special distributors, like W31, Buck Stage 1, Pontiac Ram Air IV where produced in such limited numbers, the carbs a distributors are "batch" stamped. In other words they made x-amount and used them til they ran out. Thn made another batch.

I know on stage 1 Buicks the distributors can be 3 or 4 moths off, and new people freak out to find the accepted 30 window and they never find the right date, because they didnt make them in that date range....and they are 100% correct...your distributor should be before the build date...if it is..its probably right...

The dates are known, and you can pick out a restamp, because un-knowing forgers stamp the date ya want, and the factory didnt even make the carbs or distributors in those months,,,

 

Well, I doubt that mine is a re stamp considering when I purchased it (1996) and the amount that I paid was low, (i mean low) and there was really no reason to re stamp it at the time, as documentation was provided as the cars' i.d. The seller, (owner #2) had owned it since 1971, but....owner number one, probably raced it, as it was a factory 4:33 equipped/4spd. It had headers, alum. intake and a Holley when the guy I bought it from purchased it. He did what he could to return it to stock, but the dist. could have been replaced way back then, as he did not receive the original carb, exhaust manifolds and intake when he acquired it. (It has a 310 hp carb) He returned it to stock shortly after buying it, and had a local Olds dealership install 3:42's as he was going to a Community College at the time, and 4:33's were a bit much.

 

i doubt its a restamp too, the leter I wasnt used, by most GM lines...if the number is right and the date is later its probably a service piece, at one time gm made new parts/service parts available for 10 years after manufacture date...I have a few distribs and carbs that have 69 and 70 numbers but dates in 73 and 77...

 

As I recall, they did skip the letter "I" on distributor date codes. But you are correct in dating your distributor as July 15, 1969 and I believe, as you do, that it is not a re-stamp. I'd say that distributor originally went on a late production '69 model car.

If there is a "norm" for dated parts on a car, you should look at anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months before the car was built. On Corvettes, they will accept anything up to 6 months before the build date of the car and, in some cases, even further back than 6 months (batch parts for somewhat unique cars are a good example).

I used to think that, at the assembly plant, the new parts went on the back of the shelf and then kept getting pushed forward as the parts on the front of the shelf were used. That just wasn't so. On my '68 4-4-2 (build date of the first week of April '68), the engine block is dated in early November 1967. The heads, intake manifold and exhaust manifolds are all dated in March 1968. The real surprises, my steering box and the steering box cover, are dated the same week the car was built. I know these parts to be original to the car (my dad bought the car new). So, as you can see, there can be quite a wide variation in dated parts.

The key, if you want your car to be as the factory would have built it, is that the date on the part should be prior to the build date of your car.

Randy C.

 

I know that the date makes it a late '69 or early '70 unit. When did they shut down for the model year changeover, July, August? Don't know if I will swap it for an earlier unit or not.

 

I'm just recalling this - just my recollections, not fact - that, back in those days, they produced cars up to the last day in July. They then shut down for about two weeks to re-tool for the new model year before starting the new production year in mid-August.

My '71 Corvette has two parts - the starter and the master cylinder - that were manufactured in late July 1970 but the car wasn't built until mid-December 1970. So, it's not unusual to have July-dated parts on the next year's model car, just as long as the part number stamped into the item is correct for the newer model car.

I wish I had some specific info on distributor part numbers for the W31 but I don't.

Randy C.