Date: Sat, 30 Nov 1996 22:13:12 -0800
From: Mike West <mwest@CDSNET.NET>
Subject: Distributor, the brain

The Distributor or dizzy:

I'll leave that there so I will know where I'm going on this.

Lots of you know this stuff so don't be offended, it's for the "other guy".

We have three or four kinds and I'll talk about three.

The fourth would be the major mojo of the EFI crowd which comes in
a later episode of the "Pushing back the Darkness" series.

We need a story here: once way back in the bad old days, they didn't
have any year, just called "hard times", I was always seeking knowledge and
the easiest job.

 It was on the U.S.S. Midway, the one where the Chaplain went over the
hill, we had these "water level regulators" that no-one understood.

 Had a whole three inputs and these ran into this magic box and then
sent out a signal to the main water stop valve and it kept the water
half-way up in the sight glass on a boiler.

 Regulations said we had to use them so we did but due to lack of
knowledge, every time the first sign of too much water etc.,it was cut out
and we went back to "checking" by hand.

 Even when it worked good, there was a man who watched the water level
continuously. That's why they call it "checking".  :-)

 Naturally a "bitch" sheet would be written up and be addressed at the
next Ship yard visit.

 They"d send a "yard bird" over to check it out and he'd get in that
locked magic box and do "things".

 This thing had, as said three sensors, one gave it the water level,
one went to the main steam outlet on the boiler and a third went to the same
main steam line but clear over at the bulkhead.

 To shorten the story up, I became the ships "wizard" on the "Stokes
water level regulator".

 A magician, had my own key to the magic boxes.

 Once you got into it, all it did was send these three signals in the
form of pressure to the box where they pushed on a steel bar and the
resultant was given to another valve that then fed it to the water
valve. Just an "averager", no magic.

 The usual problems would be a leak in a line that couldn't be fixed
till we got in port and would be adjusted for in the meantime.

 On that ship it didn't alleviate my work load but it did give me some
power.

 One day I decided I didn't want any extra chores so I just wandered
around with a "slide rule" (pre-cursor to calculator) and a pair of
calipers and measured things and played with the slide rule.
 The "frown of heavy concentration" on my face.

 Not even the officers would ask what I was doing, for fear of what I
might tell them I guess.  :-)

 Just hang in there, I'm not lost in nostalgia yet.

 On the Destoyers of later life, we had a similar device called a
"Bailey water level regulator". No one used them, none worked even
tho they were there in the water line etc.

 The Bailey only had one input signal, the existing water level and
wasn't nearly so good as the Stokes.

 Still as a "Stokes Mate" the challenge was put to me and I gave it
my best.

 Put everything back to "specs", blueprinted etc, and be damned if they
didn't work pretty good!

 They wouldn't handle the big and frequent changes like the Stokes but
if you were just cruising they worked just fine.
 For maneuvering, you just cut them out and "checked" by hand.
It takes some skill.

 There has to be a moral or some piece of useful data in here some-
where you say.  Hahhh!  :-)

 "We started out talking distributors and he's got me "checking water"
on a freaking Destroyer"!!

 Shanghai'd again!!

 The 009 distributor, the brains, I might add of your engine and master of
your "valve train geometry" has only one input.

 How fast your engine is turning right at that moment.

 Has no idea where you want to go next. Has a certain "lag" to it.

 The second dizzy we talk of has two inputs. How fast it's doing now
and a reference to what you just asked the carburetor to do next with
you foot. That's that vacuum line to the carby. If it's on the right
carb outlet.

 The third dizzy has three sources of information, the speed it's at,
the carb data, and another that goes to the intake manifold over at the head
which is "averaged" by the "pot" on the dizzy.

 These sources of input are kind of the I.Q. of your dizzy.

 I think you see the anology now.

 Here's my own input: I use an 009 right now, but around town,
maneuvering?  It just isn't as good as the vacuum distributor and I'm
fairly sure that's reflected in my mileage.

 In town I don't get mileage, I get "blockage"!

 Out on the freeway, the car doesn't seem to use any gas.

 So . . .  why the big thing on 009?

 The vacuum dizzy you replaced was old and the vacuum lines too.
 The carby needed rebuilt.
 The whole engine was shot and hardly even "pulled" a vacuum.
 The 009 is cheaper than a vacuum jobby.

 But now we have fixed all that, right? And we've cash in the bank!

 I believe if you compared apples to apples,"new dizzy" to "new dizzy",
you'd get some whole different points of view.

 So you make the decisions, I only have one piece of advice.

 Don't drink in strange bars down at the water-front.

 west