Distributor question

[og]

On the bottom of distributor there is a "winged" bushing, which engages distributor to the slotted shaft in the engine. The inner dia of this bushing is larger then
the distributor shaft and as such it slides on the dowel pin, which is pressed into the distributor shaft. I am wondering how much radial
play, if any, is allowed in this part, or does it matter? When I say radial play I mean if you grab the "winged" bushing with one hand and shaft by other hand and twist it,
should there be any play in that direction? This would be the radial play between the dowel pin and bushing, since dowel pin is tightly joined by the shaft.

[Jim LaGuardia]

There will be play, the cog floats in the driving shaft.

[og]

There will be play, the cog floats in the driving shaft.

Thank you Jim! This is the part of my discovery process on why do I get bi-modal idle RPM distribution. I have found that my advance does not return all the way to the end, when pressed forward
by the hand and allowed to return. I described that in my other post. When I disassembled the distributor, I found that everything is OK with it, advance returns cleanly to zero, so what I thought before as advance not returning to the zero was in fact play in the bushing and dowel pin. Of course, in normal operation, distributor is constantly driven, so the play in the bushing should not matter. The only problem I discovered with distributor was that the C-clip on the top (underneath the felt plug) was off, so in theory, advance assembly could have moved up or down a bit during operation, but still I do not see that as a cause of idle RPM issue.

[Jim LaGuardia]

The missing clip may be contributing to your problem, this allows the advance mechanism to unseat and stick(high idle)

[og]

Will report when I get it all together! I have Pertronix installed so condenser wire is really pain in the butt when inserting the plate into the body and I do not need condenser. I am considering removing it, but I cannot really figure how is it fastened into the body? Press-fit? Glued? Obviously, adequate rubber plug would be needed to plug the hole in that case.....