Hey,
In the interest of my EVER on-going struggle to find a distributor to fit my Ford AND fit under the hood of my MGA coupe . . . I've settled on an older Accell dual points vacuum advance distributor, Accel part no. 34201V.
Looks the part of an early stock Ford distributor and fits nice and low beneath the hood of the car.
Perfecto !
Except . . . that it needs a new vacuum advance canister and they don't seem to exist ! ! !
Haven't been able to find a source for them anywhere. Not through Accel, not Summit or the usual suspects, not Napa or Advanced either. LOTS of traditional vacuum advance units, but this one is unique in that it has a U shaped cross section piece of bracketing attached to the vacuum canister and two cast in bosses with threaded holes on the upper distributor body for mounting.
The canister also has a dog legged flat rod that snakes under the points plate to pin on through a small hole. Not the usual straight rod like the HEI distributors use or a flat straight rod that lines on from the top as other distributors have.
Anyway, I'm lost and desperate here as the distributor is useless without the new canister and nothing can be adapted to work. Gotta be the right one and I just can't find one anywhere for the 34201V ! ! ! !
Any help at all would be huge at this point !
Thanks ! ! !
TC
Are you sure you need the vacuum advance for that distributor to work? Most you can just leave the hose off and just run on the centrifugal advance.
Or if for some reason that distributor needs vacuum to hold something in place, rig the advance unit rod to stay put in the no advance position?
Accel used to make a non-vacuum advance version of that distributor too (34201). I don't know if it used different mechanical advance setups in there, or if it just works without the vacuum mechanism bolted in.
Yeah,
The vacuum advance helps provide the necessary transition between stop and go for street driving with this distributor. The weights/springs/points plate need replacing or alterations to MAYBE have it work as a mechanical advance unit. Plus, the vacuum/mechanical combination makes the driving SO much smoother, no waiting for the revs to come up and the mechanical advance to come on, you know?
Turns the distributor into a nice smooth every day piece rather than something where you have to wait for the revs to come up, but they can't come up until the distributor advances, but the distributor can advance until the revs come up, but the revs can't come up smoothly until the distributor advances kinda thing.
With this distributor, it was designed to have a vacuum advance and runs horribly without it.
I'm surprised that Accel just abandons it's older products like this, yet sells advance canisters for stock and OTHER manufacturer's distributors.
Frustrating ! ! ! !
Again, any help would be HUGE ! !
T
There's no way you can adapt another one? I'd suggest the older Ford adjustable unit as a start point, fab a mount bracket.
Keep in mind that's a pretty old distributor you have, and Accel has been bought and sold a few times over the last couple decades. Several of the aftermarket distributors use the GM vacuum canister design so that's why you keep finding them.
Also, there may be reasons Accel dropped that design. Maybe the reasons you are experiencing. 
I looked around and I don't have an older Accel catalog around. Was going to see if I could find you a part number.
