THE LOAD-O-MATIC DISTRIBUTOR

By Gerry Dubois

The Load-o-Matic distributor is essentially the same from the bowl up  on all modern Ford units. Take a '57 or later distributor, remove the breaker plate and upper shaft assembly. Replace these with the beaker plate and upper shaft assembly from any '75 or later Ford V-8 distributor. Install a new stator and reluctor. You will have to notch the distributor housing to fit the stators wire harness. This is as simple as extending the existing hole up to the rim of the bowl. The old style cap can be retained for an old time look or the new style two-piece cap can be used with modern 8mm wires for best performance. You will also need a module and a Duraspark unique coil. You could fab up a harness on your own or purchase one from a Ford industrial dealer.(Part number D7JL-12A200-CA) This harness will plug directly into the distributor, module and coil. It has two wires to power it. Luckily the brown wire and the red wire that now go to the resistor and the positive side of the coil are the correct input for the job. Make the two connections and turn the key. You may have to disconnect the brown wire from the starter relay to avoid a feed back that will cause the starter to run on after you release the key. You will want to regap the  plugs to about .045" to take advantage of the much stronger spark. You can  also use an MSD 6AL type of module with the Ford distributor, if you wish.

MSD offers a harness (#8869) that plugs into the Duraspark distributor plug while the other end plugs into their module. Follow the MSD instructions for the rest of the wiring requirements. If you decide to go this route, be sure to use one of the MSD Blaster coils. An upgraded vacuum advance could give  even more power. The local auto parts store usually carries these. I've used the '85 Mustang 5.0 replacement to great success. These are adjustable for the amount of vacuum it takes to bring in full vacuum advance using an 1/8" Allen wrench through the vacuum port. This particular unit offers 20 degrees of advance at the crank. The arm is marked with a "10". The fuel economy improvement is enormous.