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Why are vacuum advance canisters expensive? |
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Ricardo540 
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Joined: Sep/29/2014 Location: Ecuador Status: Offline Points: 35 |
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 Topic: Why are vacuum advance canisters expensive?Posted: May/22/2020 at 11:37pm |
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This is more of an opinion/rant post. I was working on my timing and noticed the advance didn't moved on its full range of motion nor it was moving fluidly. So after learning how to adjust the advance canister I took some hex keys and dug into the vacuum port, after trying on several sizes and not any of them really fiiting into the bolt I concluded that the head of the allen bolt was stripped and far from being able to be adjusted. Long story short I would love a plain simple functional canister for my perfectly functional distributor on my 79' Spirit 258... but the only one I could find is around 50$! While a brand new oem distributor is around the same price tag or maybe a bit more... why charging so much? Is it just because of parts shortage?
Edited by Ricardo540 - May/22/2020 at 11:40pm |
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PHAT69AMX
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Joined: Jul/07/2007 Location: West Virginia Status: Offline Points: 5918 |
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Posted: May/23/2020 at 1:07am |
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( edit ) This is AMC V8 info, not 6 Cylinder info, so may be WRONG, I don't know 6-Cyl, sorry So assume you have a 1979 vintage stock AMC / Jeep MotorCraft AutoLite DuraSpark type of Distributor? If so, research shows, although have not had real parts in-hand, the AMC Jeep MotorCraft Vacuum Advance Canister is actually different than the Ford version, the AMC unit has a different shaped arm on it. Just as there are a couple easily overlooked but significant differences in the AMC and Chevy Delco Units, such as entirely different Point Plates and Distributor Housing casting Cap Locator Notch clock locations. So, market demand for the AMC MotorCraft AutoLite DuraSpark version of the Vacuum Advance Canisters is relatively 'very low' and can only guess is the reason for the elevated replacement part cost. Was under the assumption not all Vacuum Advance Canister were adjustable, only 'performance manufacturer' ones like Crane for instance, but as many times before, could be wrong about that.  Edited by PHAT69AMX - May/23/2020 at 11:59am |
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ramblinrev
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Joined: Dec/28/2008 Location: Wisconsin Status: Offline Points: 11530 |
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Posted: May/23/2020 at 10:30am |
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In general, I suspect that because vacuum advance canisters are a thing of the past-they are no longer being made by the millions. Every vehicle made used to have one (except for a diesel), so mass production efficiencies applied then. That doesn't work in the aftermarket world, 30-40-50 years later.
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PHAT69AMX
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Joined: Jul/07/2007 Location: West Virginia Status: Offline Points: 5918 |
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Posted: May/23/2020 at 11:57am |
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Uh oh... this is in the 6-Cyl area... Info I posted before is for V8's... Don't know about 6's, sorry
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wittsend
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Joined: Apr/15/2020 Location: California Status: Offline Points: 420 |
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Posted: May/23/2020 at 1:29pm |
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I believe car parts are like most other things in life. Reasonably cheap because everyone is needing them. Then for a period of time they are even cheaper because it become suspect that others will still need the plenitude of parts and the seller "better get for it what they can."
With fewer models of a specific car on the road and many having replacement parts to go further down the road demand drys up. THEN! At a later point in time there is a need, far fewer are available and the seller can ask what he wants because they know you need the part. That said if you are able, be patient. I've looked on Ebay for bearings for my 196 OHV and was shocked to see $140 mains, $90 rods and $85 cam bearings as the only bearings at available times. But, recently I got a set of mains for $20, rods for $10 and there are at least fours sets of cam bearings available for $20. The other thing is have you considered adapting another vacuum canister? I realize that they are all calibrated differently but in general I would thing any vacuum advance would be better than none at all.
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tomj
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Posted: May/25/2020 at 1:18am |
As far as I know, only explicitly-adjustable aftermarket vacuum advance units are adjustable. Stock ones are riveted. It's not really a good way to tweak spark advance anyway. I just bought one for $15. Seems cheap for a part that lasts 10 years or more. |
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billd
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Posted: Jun/05/2020 at 9:47pm |
LOL - you can't adjust a stock vacuum advance! Your search obviously was google and you landed on replacement/3rd party/after-market parts. SOME of them can be adjusted, but not normally stock and not for the 6 for sure. I'm not sure anyone even made an adjustable one for an AMC 6.
That's the first mistake - trying to adjust a stock vacuum advance. 2nd point would be - why would you want to? Did you have the thing checked out on a distributor machine? |
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Trader
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Joined: May/15/2018 Location: Ontario Status: Offline Points: 6877 |
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Posted: Jun/06/2020 at 6:50am |
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Being able to make adjustments to the vacuum advance (VA) does have some usefulness. with constant playing with fuel mixtures these days you notice changes. Here they switch between what they call Summer and Winter gas. Well that just means a different batch of additives almost every year - my rant.
I had a small amount of part throttle detonation on my first fill up this year, timing was still spot on to were it was in the fall. One rotation of the VA to reduce VA solved the detonation issue.
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Ricardo540 wrote: