Spring has sprung.

Distributor advance weight springs are one of those things that get neglected, but should be replaced every now and then, simply because they are, after all, springs -- they will eventually stretch.

Whilst rebuilding a Delco distributor for Barney, it was obvious I'd need new springs, so I went down to Smokey's Speed Shop (Smokey as in Yunick - yes, the legend himself opened up a shop in Oceanside years ago) and got a Mr. Gasket #928G Advance Spring Kit. This kit contains 3 sets of springs for Delco distributors -- but absolutely no instructions. Checking the Mr. Gasket website doesn't help either; they have no instruction sheets online like Crane or Moroso do.

Finally, after an extensive Google search, I came up with the way to tell the 3 sets of springs apart, and am posting it here in hopes that some other poor soul looking for this info will have an easier time of it.

Mr. Gasket 928G Spring Weight Decoder:

• Gold springs = Heavy (OEM style, slowest advance)
• Silver springs = Medium (faster advance)
• Black springs = Light (fastest advance)

From yet another website, here's a chart that explains when the centrifugal advance will kick in for each set of springs used (click on it to see full-size):

To Mr. Gasket and the Prestolite Corporation: Love your products, hate your documentation.