Dual diaphram retard question

[Jack21]

Car manufacturers did a lot of boneheaded things to their engines starting halfheartedly in the '68 model year, and wholeheartedly in the '71 model year to meet emissions requirements. In doing so, they took perfectly good 400 HP engines, and turned them into barely running 150 HP engines, and gashogs at that.

If you're one of the embarrassed former owners of a '70's factory stock musclecar, you vividly remember the emissions parts box, and the little, or not so little exercise you went through once a year to get your car emissions inspected.

The original distributor, carburetor, air cleaner, vacuum lines, and hot air hoses were reinstalled for your emissions test, then returned to the parts box until next year. Sometimes these emissions engines would barely run at all, and in some cases had to be towed to the test station. Worst, were the guys that had to store, and reinstall the entire original engine for emissions testing, then reinstall the "Good" engine to drive another year.

The Ford vacuum retard distributor was one of those items that spent most of its adult life in the emissions test parts box, and was installed in the engine for the day the emissions test was performed.

You see where I'm going with this, right? This was the time when women were burning their bras, and men were burning their Rochester Quadrajet carburetors.

To make a long story short, take your distributor into a shop that knows how to rebuild, and recurve them. Easier said than done as distributor recurving shops have gone the way of blacksmith shops with the advent of the iron horse, and computer controlled ignitions and EFI. (Thank our higher power for folks like Holley, and Demon who still know how to make carburetors.)

I think MSD now makes a Pro-Billet distributor for FE motors due to their popularity in Cobra reproductions.

So if the budget can afford it, replace OEM distributor with MSD or other quality aftermarket, and put your OEM Ford into the emissions parts box if you need this for your Cobra, or your local automotive museum.