Does your manifold have the bracket on it or not? Are you asking where to get the bracket or where to fit it to the engine?
There's lots of stuff inside most distributors. The shaft, the bob weights, the baseplate, the vacuum advance, the points and condenser, the rotor arm and the cap. The dizzy in most cars does more than simply distribute the sparks, it controls the ignition system.
Do you understand that electrical transformers can only work with an alternating current? Well, the coil is a transformer so it needs AC to work but obviously the car's power is DC. The points in the distributor open and close as the engine turns, they are just a switch that controls the power going through the coil. So by opening and closing they turn the DC into AC (as the power is coming and going through the coil). This means the coil generates a big lump of volts each time the points open, so if you put four lumps (like cams) on the shaft that is turning in the dizzy to open and close the points then the coil will produce four big lumps of volts for every cycle which is conveniently one for each cylinder. The condensor is there to make the sparks better by changing the direct on/off of the points into a more curvy pattern.
The other stuff (the bob weights and the vacuum advance) is all there to control exactly when the sparks are produced. The bob wieghts are two weights fixed to the sides of the shaft in the base of the dizzy, arranged to pivot. As the dizzy spins faster and faster, the weights move further out from the shaft. This movement is used to pull the four lobed cam that is actually opening the points around on the shaft so that it can move the exact time when they open backwards or forwards in time during the cycle of the engine. The vacuum servo does the same thing but instead of monitoring the engine speed it monitors the vacuum in the inlet manifold which is supposed to give some idea of the load on the engine. This vacuum pulls on a diaphragm in the canister you can see on the side of the dizzy, moving the baseplate around in the dizzy which also moves the time when the points open forwards or backwards. This is because under different conditions the engine needs the spark to fire at different times to keep it running smoothly.
Once you understand the principles involved it's a pretty simple thing, but very elegant and clever.
Edited by Dan, 07 July 2006 - 10:31 PM.
