Figgerin Things out. Wiper motor, vacuum advance, a wire or several.

[Yardpilot]

I think our summer drought is over. It's been raining like a whole bucket full of bastards the last couple of days. Anything that can leak, is.

Would there be a soul who knows what size bolts hold the windshield wiper motor to the mounting bracket on a 1973 F100? Two are gone. I noticed that before, forgot about it, now it's raining, I remember it. It may be easiest to pull the whole thing, pain that it is, rather than try to fold my arm at the second and third elbows to get the bolts in from the firewall side working through the radio hole.

Lemme see if I'm getting some understanding of the vacuum advance deal. You start with a set amount of advance, say 6-10 degrees with no vacuum. Accelerate, vacuum is down, advance comes in with the centrifugal weights and springs. You back off the throttle, vacuum increases, centrifugal advance stays with the revs, vacuum advance increases more. Total advance is higher. Is that right? Non-operating vacuum advance would then result in low speed missing or roughness when you are just putting around, wouldn't it? Now, what does that second vacuum tube on the advance do?

There are four wires out of the trans together, two for the nss and two for the back up lights. They got tangled up and broken. When I hook them back up (after I figure out which is which), I plan on using a trailer light connector to locate the disconnect up high instead of down underneath. Any problem with that?

Oops, almost forgot. Great job, Felix!

[STINEY]

I'm no Ford guru, but normally a distributor with 2 hose hookups on the vacuum can means one thing...........it has vacuum advance AND vacuum retard built into it.

Your theory on the advance is correct, NO extra advance at WOT, and more advance at cruising speed (low throttle-high manifold vacuum)

The vacuum retard is one of those ill-concieved weirdo 70's emission attempts. If I remember correctly, the theory was to keep emissions down by slowing the advance movement when WOT occurs. In other words, you floor it, and then 5 seconds later actually achieve the correct timing your engine wants, performance takes a backseat to tailpipe air quality (emissions)

Sounds worthless, right? To us guys, it was. To the tree huggers, it was a win.

Now fast forward to today. That same retard unit can be setup to effectively pull timing in a boosted application. Neat use of "failed technology" in another application.

[MR P-BODY]

The 2 vac lines are on the vac can... 1 on either side of the diaphragm
to advance it and when the throttle is closed( high vac) it pulls on the
other side of the diaphragm to retard the timing... its using a pressure
differential.... your correct with the rest of it.... high advanced is used
with low engine load