MTFCA Forum

Here is a couple pictures of a distributor that a friend needs help with. Needs information and a gear or what gear will work with it. Thanks for any help. Dan

The distributor shaft gear on it looks like new. Has this ever been used on a car?
If you cannot find definite info on the proper gear, or a spare gear from someone who has an "Autodis" unit laying around, my suggestion would be to see if you can fit a shaft gear/drive gear off of a Texas T distributor. Maybe someone in your local club has one you can borrow for a few days to check it out. It may work right out of the box, or only need minor modification, such as a spacer installed on one side of the drive gear or the other, to get it into alignment with the shaft drive gear. The actual teeth may be identical, and a different drive gear may drop right in, and also mesh with the shaft gear with no problem. Remember that all these units, regardless of manufacturer, had to bolt right up to the Model T, so their appearances may be different, but their internal designs are likely to be very close, if not identical. (If they were not, they would never have just bolted right onto the Model T engine without major modification. I really doubt that ANY of these manufacturers had special gears made for these units, especially when they originally sold for $10 or so. They are all using the same stock gear setup.)
If nothing else, find a local "Boston Gear" representative, and ask them to look at it and recommend a replacement set of gears.

The gear in the picture looks to me like an Atwater Kent gear. Try to find the matching gear. It might just work.

That is an Auto-Dis made in Argentina and is a clockwise rotation, will see if I some gears sets for you later today.

Hank

Found an old posting for the AUTODIS in 2010 by George Mitchell http://www.mtfca.com/discus/messages/11 ... 1272684274 not much said but a suggestion that it may be a copy of an American Bosch distributor. Looking at Lang's I think its this https://www.modeltford.com/item/BO2.aspx I marked what I think each gear is - could be wrong

I have been running one of these for over 50 years on my 21 Touring. The head is the same as mid 50's jeep. Autolite IAD400. Cap, rotor, points & condenser are available from NAPA. The CAM gear is as pictured below.

Any idea why the key way? Does it fit something else? Any idea where to get one? Thanks Dan

Dan - the key way function is the same as on a timer roller - the small retaining pin in the camshaft prevents spinning.

The keyway locks it to the cam shaft. I bought mine new 50+ years ago. It came with a pin with a large head to fit the keyway. I modified mine to eliminate the auto advance and added a tab to the body to use my regular advance and made a reversing lever similar to the Bosch front plate.