M38 Auto-Lite distributor weights and springs?

Holyfieldm14sm · Post by **Holyfieldm14sm** » Fri Jul 24, 2020 6:11 pm

I am new here to the forum and have been using the resources here for the last couple of months to help get my 1951 M38 on the road. The tag on the distributor is marked AXS-1859 or possibly AXS-1850 cant really see the tag all that well. The distributor advance springs seem to be worn out and as well as one of the weights which has a worn out egg shaped hole. The springs seem to be bad because if I manipulate the weights manually the springs only pull the weights back around 1/2 to 3/4 of the way loosely which doesn't seem correct. The rest of the distributor seems fine except for the above mentioned items which I believe may be causing me to have a slight miss at idle because I have checked most everything else that I know how. Any help would be greatly appreciated and I apologize if I have over looked something that is in the manual as I couldn't seem to find much on how to test the springs for normal operation.

Post by **wesk** » Fri Jul 24, 2020 10:20 pm

The AXS1850 is the military specification number for the spec sheet the military used to let vendors know just what the distributor had to do and what it's dimensions should be. The number on that plate directly below that AXS # is the actual model number of the distributor and the number alongside that AXS# is the ordinance part number.

Is this you distributor?

If you do have the IAU4006UT distributor then you should be in the TM 9-1825B dated 1952 Chapter 5 Distributors, Sect V Group 3 sealed waterproof distributors. You can download the applicable portions of this manual on our "Downloads" page.

Holyfieldm14sm · Post by **Holyfieldm14sm** » Sat Jul 25, 2020 3:05 pm

Wes,

Thank you for the link to the correct TM Manual. The distributor is indeed marked IAU-4006UT upon further inspection. After looking through the manual I did verify that one of my weight is worn out. If anyone knows where I could source a set of governor weights and possibly springs I would appreciate it.

Post by **wesk** » Sat Jul 25, 2020 7:43 pm

Starting with your ORD 9 SNL G-740 M38 parts manual

You are looking for 2 each:
N - Weight, Gov Assy - Autolite # IGC2168L, ORD # 7706790, Willys # A9314, FSN 2920-495-3301, NSN 2920-00-495-3301

P - Spring - Autolite # IGE24 (Sold in a set of 2 Autolite # IGE24S, ORD# 7330828 or Willys # 118747

The springs are tough to find.

Here's a google search for the weights by NSN:
https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALe ... A0Q4dUDCAw

This old 2014 post touches on this topic as well: http://www.willysmjeeps.com/v2/modules. ... highlight=