A Few Unaswered ?'s

DeeJay, from the thread "Diamonds In the Rough" ; about a '58 (?) R 185 for sale on Craigs list, one entry contained a Craigs List reference to a '55 R 185 fire truck and the pictures of the truck have a nice photo of the dash knobs you're interested in.

http://spokane.craigslist.org/cto/4259500071.html

here is the chance to grab the tach and the drive parts. If this truck has a Six cylinder engine, the tach drive distributor may fit a 220SD, with a few minor mods.
The seller may be interested in selling a few parts to get his money. It is relatively easy to pull the dash and this is the type of IH that often had the fresh air heater. Yes, it will fit the light line cabs.

EDIT: I just got off the phone with the seller who is doing this for his father. He will call his father today and will ask if it might be possible to part the truck out. I think that they could easily improve their bottom line several times by parting out the truck and scraping the pumps which may be brass and certainly worth more than the asking price. The seller will email some more pictures to me so the heater can be identified along with the engine.

L & R 185 & up have Red Diamond (RD 372,406,450,501) engines and the distributor will not fit any of the other 6cyl's.The ones for the BD269,282 & 308 are totally different as well.
There is no dist. for the SD,BD or BG 220-265 engines listed in any IH parts manual for a tach drive.

L & R 185 & up have Red Diamond (RD 372,406,450,501) engines and the distributor will not fit any of the other 6cyl's.The ones for the BD269,282 & 308 are totally different as well.
There is no dist. for the SD,BD or BG 220-265 engines listed in any IH parts manual for a tach drive.

But the 706 tractor engine DOES have a tach drive that mounts inbetween the dist and block like the RD series. Food for thought, or parts search....

L & R 185 & up have Red Diamond (RD 372,406,450,501) engines and the distributor will not fit any of the other 6cyl's.The ones for the BD269,282 & 308 are totally different as well.
There is no dist. for the SD,BD or BG 220-265 engines listed in any IH parts manual for a tach drive.

But the 706 tractor engine DOES have a tach drive that mounts inbetween the dist and block like the RD series. Food for thought, or parts search....

That distributor is also used on the 460 and 560 gas Farmalls...more food for thought.

And exactly what engine is in those pieces AG equipment?
Any facts to substantiate the dist. from one will mount to an SD etc??? Has anyone actually done it???
Do they have any parts aside from ignition (which can be different too) that are the same,like the coupler??? What about the vac. advance?
It would be prudent to get the correct info/facts before investing in something that may not work.

The 706 uses an ag version of the 220 block. The dist enters a tach adaptor between the block and engine much like the RD series uses. While the dist itself is likey not suitable for automotive application, the tach adaptor obviously fits the block. It would be worth looking into. Crosses of this kind can not ruled in or out by looking in parts books, but only by compareing parts. It is a use of parts that IHC never used together.
No, I haven't done it, I have no Small six blocks nor do I expect to. But is it worth looking into. The part, purchesed from a AG junkyard should be fairly cheap, and worth checking out. The adaptor should fit the bock without issue, the only question is if the stock automotive dist will fit the adaptor and allow the vacuum advance. Another possibility would be to change the advance curve of the ag dist. Vacuum advance is not needed (or used on heavy duty engines, neither the BLD or RD series use it), but the advance curve must be matched to the load. On lightly loaded engines vacuum advance is used to reduce fuel comsumption by allowing more advance at part throttle then a pure mechanical advance will allow.

My R120 with a 220 SD had a cable drive tachometer in it. I have yet to see the guy that I gave the motor to, complete with distributor , but I understand that he still has the tack drive distributor and possible the motor. Getting around in traffic is a discouraging me from going to see him in the next city, but it will happen. This discussion came up about a year ago when I mentioned it. Believe it or not, a distributor, with a few minor changes, from another application will work in the SD 220. When I get the distributor, I will post some pictures and try to remember what was done, back in the day. This was done in the days before smart phones and I know that I have film pictures. Finding the pictures is the problem. My wife is less interested and no help.

Regarding the dash knobs. See the L, R, S thread titled Cold Start. There is a discussion about using the throttle and choke. The other two knobs are probably wipers and cigar/cigarette lighter. Your wipers are likely vacuum operated and are going to take some getting used to as they depend solely on the vacuum from the engine directly in the intake manifold beneath the carb. If by chance they are the electric motor operated wipers you'll be happier. If you wish to get rid of the vacuum unit, Newport Engineering offers an electric motor direct fit and intermittent switches are available. Cost will be a little under $300 including shipping.

somebody made the throttle hole bigger for the lighter so im going to relocate the throttle (which I found the original knob for in my parts bin!) above the ignition switch my truck has so many blasted holes that the guy added in the fire wall the dash and else where that makes me mad, and i myself am going with the Newport system because my vacuum pump is shot, i do need the tab and knobs for my new heater though.

I have a nice dash removed from an R series truck with NO extra holes in it, if you have an L, you'd need to drill for the starter button. also may have controls for fresh air heater,
Sold the heater long ago, but I think I kept the controls,

Au contraire, there's a lot that can be found using the right books IF you know how to use them.
I did a little research and the AG dist. idea is plausible. Difficult to determine without a book for the AG unit though.
I found the breaker plate and weight hold down plate in a couple dist. used by IH also fit units used by Chevy and John Deere so it's likely those,the cam and even shaft could be swapped into other units if need be.

I also stumbled upon a 1948 Delco-Remy parts catalog (PDF),covers '37 to '48 DR distributors,generators and starters. It lists by mfr. (IH too) and has break downs with part numbers for each unit. Might come in useful so I downloaded it.