59 Pan intermittent ground to the distributor

[alsmith1964]

My 59 Pan was running ruff, I diagnosed it to a intermittent ground to the distributor. It seams strange to me that the only ground my distributor gets is through the spring on the advance (I cleaned uo the spring and the ground was restored). Is this how it gets it grounding source or am I missing a ground wire?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[easyricer]

I wouldn't think that the spring was the only ground but I guess it's possible. I've never run into that problem on the '50 (or anyone elses for that matter) What I have run into was the terminal off the points rubbing on the cover once. Bent the tab back a bit and have not had to mess with it since.
EASY

[Ohio HD]

You gotta remember that originally there was no spring there, they had a cable going to the left twist grip to advance and retard the timing. The grounding of the distributor is through the distributor body it's self. I would take it all apart and clean it up everywhere the parts mate to each other, and from the base to the studs in the case. If all else fails, put a ground ware from the body to one of the two mounting studs. You don't have aircraft nylon lock nuts on the distributor mount do you? They tend to insulate, rather than pass voltage.

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[fourthgear]

Grounding of timer should be through any part of the timer body & motor case. The spring you are talking about , is it the retainer spring or as said , the spring that some use instead of the advancing cable ?
Clean all contact points where any part of the timer body meets with the engine case or to each other .

Aluminum can be some funny stuff , if its not good & clean for grounding .