i'm thinking of building a mechanical timing retard unit for my 86 integra with vacuum advance anybody herd of such a thing or have any clue if it could work

 

That's what people typically use when they have carbs, so there's no reason it shouldn't work. The concept is based on
Centripetal force - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
that phenomena. Knowing that the dizzy spins 1/2 as fast as the crank you can use math, springs, and weights to work things.

The ones in carb'd cars are in two pieces, one directly mounted to the dizzy, and one attatched to that to trigger the sensor on a spring.

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1240861349

You can see the spring is in the radial direction.

It would be a lot easier to convert to a computer you can adjust spark timing with.

 

redpepperracing.com has an older thread about those vac advance distributors and g1teg.org ought to have some info too
why not swap to black top and electronic advance, that opens the door to obd1 also- write up available on redpepperracing.com also

 

+1

 

I second that!!

 

i third that!