MTFCA Forum

I have seen two instances on the Internet of a aftermarket timer brush similar to the New Day being used in a Roller Timer cover. Has anyone ever tried one of these successfully?

That's new to me. It seems like a good idea, with one reservation being that the brush would travel further per revolution than would a New Day type brush. Another would be the likely tendency of the brush to keep any loose wear debris stirred up, since the brush would track through it with every revolution.

Ford did try it for a short time. I have a couple aftermarket type, and did try one. Worked fine till the crossbow type spring broke in the one I was using. Coil spring under the brush would have worked fine, just never got around to messing with them again. I did use the carbon generator brush, which I found to be too soft. The first contact in relationship to the arc, should be about the same for both. You would be timing it to when it makes contact, so those 4 points would be the same anyway.

The degrees between contact would be the same, but the distance traveled traveled would be greater and thus the speed at the point of contact would be greater. The rotating contact would have to travel both faster and farther per revolution, since it would sweep a larger circle, which would tend to increase wear. However, that increased wear might be offset by a faster make-and-break event at any given engine speed, which might reduce the tendency to draw an arc between the moving contact and the commutator segment.

Isn't is this what Tony Wiltshire's (RIP) timer is doing?