Replacing vacuum advance

[johngmm7]

I am attempting to renew the vacuum advance unit on the distributor of my 65 deville.  Trying to replace without removing distributor as I'm really worried about reinstalling properly.
After removing the cap and rotor, I see the advance unit appears simple to replace. However. the corner of the plate on which the points are attached covers half of a small X head screw which makes it impossible to get at. This screw appears to be the only thing holding the vac unit in place.
This screw also holds down a flat brass wire connection minus any wire??  Help please!!
I wanted to write to thank the guys who answered my recent q on vacuum trouble but I cannot find that post today.  If you read this post, thanks for your advice and help.

[savemy67]

Hello John,

I rebuilt the distributor in my '67 (same engine as your '65).  I removed the distributor and was glad I did when I ran into trouble trying to remove one of the screws holding the vacuum advance in place.  Read about what I did here - http://forums.cadillaclasalleclub.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=3c7cced3f9eed3fcfe23fc2750bb1c74&topic=133691.40 - by scrolling down to reply #46.  Hope this helps.

Christopher Winter

[johngmm7]

Thanks again Chris.  You gave some soound advice on my former post about the rough idle.  You've always been most helpful and it's very much appreciated. John