wow a 1111979 just sold for 800 big ones, right in my back yard

 

This is the kind of stuff that keeps me from ever wanting to be a purist but makes me admire the guys that are.

 

The special thing about that distributor is the advance springs. Its a good thing I bought several sets of stick and auto W30 springs back in the 70s. $800 for a point type distributor whose part number is all but invisible when installed on the engine. . .wow.

 

so how would I know if I have the correct springs in mine, are the color coded or just a different rate?

 

The irony is that I believe a significant percentage of automatic 1970 W-30s left the factory with the wrong distributor, so whoever bought it might now have the "correct" distributor, but not the original one.

My own automatic W-30 has the correct distributor for a manual W-30, with a date code preceding my car's fairly early build date. This has always puzzled me, as the car never underwent a numbers-matching restoration by any previous owner. And if someone had replaced the distributor for some reason, what are the chances they'd end up with a rare manual W-30 distributor with such an early date code? So there's a good chance the factory installed mine.

To help justify my twisted reasoning, I've collected several stories over the years of automatic 1970 W-30s with the wrong distributor but believed to be original. Makes me feel better, and keeps me from spending $800 on a distributor I don't need.

Now, who wants to check the date code on the underside of my aluminum intake manifold?

 

Cool story, I'd sell the manual distributor for 1500 and buy an auto distributor for 800! Just kidding.