I know you guys just love a mystery, so here's one for you. A few days ago, during one of only a few cold spells in Texas, I drove away with the loudest, most God awful squealing noise coming from under the g=hood in my '56 P/U. It was proportionate to the engine speed, so it didn't squeal unless the RPMs were around 2K. On the drive to work, it eventually stopped, and there were no other symptoms. But on the way home, while it was squealing again, I revved the engine and it sputtered a bit. Turns out the noise was coming from the distributor. Inspecting the cap, I found a few grooves in the contacts, so I replaced it, oiled the dist shaft inside the cap and on the clamp arm, and the squeal is gone for now. But I still have a slight engine cough at low RPMs. I also lost the screw-on aluminum cap on the side of the distributor - doesn't that cap retain grease? Question: Why the squealing noise? Was it just because the shaft was dry? If so, why? The dist shaft inside the crankcase gets lubrication - do these engines require periodic lubrication at the top of the shaft? Could this be an oil pump going bad? I've got no other indications of poor lubrication and oil pressure is fine. Did the grooves in the dist contacts cause an electromagnetic pull on the rotor shaft that put it out of balance, causing the squeal? Gentlemen, start your engines...
info Hey jon did you get the info i sent you about the split manifold??? if so how is it going??? Robert
Hey Robert. I did get it - thanks very much. Too many honey-do's to get started on the split. I find myself thinking through the process occasionally, so when I do have the time, I'll be mentally ready to tackle it!
