1953 ignition points.

[gary griffin]

My friend is trying to start a 1953 67 series 4 door sedan. He is a mechanic by trade but nut too familiar with the older cars and is having trouble finding ignition points to start the car.  I suspect my spare points from my 1942  will work but not really sure and would appreciate the specifications for the correct points. The car is for sale in the Forum now but I could not add pictures from my phone? I would be happy to email them to anybody really interested.

garygriffin@Q.com

[harry s]

Gary, Points from '49 up to I'm not sure when are different. They are a mirror image of the '48 back. NAPA should have the ones you are looking for.    Harry

[signart]

+1 on NAPA, but take your old points with you and compare before you leave.

[bullet bob]

+1 on NAPA, but take your old points with you and compare before you leave.

Art is right. I've ordered from NAPA before. One is correct, the other is bass-ackwards. Compare.

[TJ Hopland]

My 2 cents worth on points:     

Unless you can find NOS stuff Standard Ignition brand Blue Streak series are the only points still made that so far still seem to be high quality.   Sadly many of the other brand names that used to be good are either long gone or nothing but a name anymore.  I don't deal with points engines a lot anymore but when I do that is often a problem spot.  Many times the story was 'points are new so that can't be the problem'.   After looking at other things I come back to the points and often times getting a good set takes care of the problem. 

Note to Standard Ignition advertising department, please make my next check out to CASH.     

[Jay Friedman]

Points are the same from '49 to '55 and are different from '56 onwards.)  The original Cadillac / Delco part number for 49-55 points is 1918148 and several NOS sets are currently for sale on ebay.  (Search on the part number.) 

The Standard Blue Streak points TJ Hopland mentions are good too and I have used those as well as original Delco points with equally good results in my '49. 

[TJ Hopland]

I was wondering when GM sort of standardized on the V8's,  looks like 56 ish to 74 were the ones that were the same?   

[dplotkin]

You are correct. 56-74 GM points for V8's mostly the same.

Dan

[signart]

NAPA carries some good points, but liked mentioned already, they have a part number that matches up to a backward set for '53.

[harry s]

The backwards or mirror image ones fit flatheads from '48 back to '37 (not sure about '36). I ran into the same problem and the only way to convince the parts guy was to have the old ones.     Harry

[bcroe]

There were distributors turning either direction well past points being
phased out.  As I recall 2 of my 60s cars (with different rotation)
used what appeared to be identical points, but different part numbers. 
Close inspection revealed my 62 points had a shorter wire, probably
because of the mounting orientation.  When they got to be scarce, I
just used the later number points with the wire looped to make a
perfect fit.  Bruce Roe

[signart]

The backwards or mirror image ones fit flatheads from '48 back to '37 (not sure about '36). I ran into the same problem and the only way to convince the parts guy was to have the old ones.     Harry

I just told the guy to give me some for '55, and wa la.