Hi Art.  Those early distributor housings were made from pot metal and often crack and break.  Ask me how I know...   Finding an original intact and usable one will be like finding gold.  If I'm not mistaken, Gary Wallace has new aluminum machined equivalent housings - bare housings where you would use the rest of your distributor parts with the new housing, ie. shaft, points, drive gear, grease cup, and even the badge plate.  He may have complete assemblies too, but check with him.

What can a person do with a 1916 Chevy distributor that has "slop" or the shaft moves when you shake it so that you can't set the points.  Note: The car starts fine and runs FINE in 1st gear. When I hit 2nd it has hardly any power and in 3rd gear is has no power at all.