Distributor Question

[Deppdog]

Any help would be appreciated greatly.

I bought a 1976 2002 with all the smog stuff pulled off in non-running condition. I was told it ran when parked a year ago, and I'm pretty sure that I was told the truth. I did manage to get it running at idle, but I can't accelerate without it bogging down until it dies and/or backfires through the carb. The Weber 32/36 carb has been thoroughly cleaned and rebuilt along with a new accelerator pump and the plastic floats set to 35mm/50mm. My thoughts are steering toward the timing or the distributor. It has a vacuum advance/retard disty with a Crane XR3000. I static timed it with the mark on the cam pulley, the flywheel and the rotor, then checked it with the light. The timing mark on the flywheel is bouncing around like a Mexican Jumping Bean, in and out of the window. I can't seem to get it set right or to hold even somewhat still. When the disty is set, the idle will bounce around as much as 1000 or more rpms along with the bouncing timing mark. I am thinking the advance/retard is binding up and maybe it's time for a rebuild or new disty, preferably one without retard. I did check the advance and retard vacuum, and it seems fine. But the advance is disconnected and plugged to set the timing anyway. Any ideas or thoughts? Thanks in advance!!!

Steve D

[Burleigh]

Does your dizzy have a little "fan" in it underneath the rotor? If so, it is probably loose and giving the crane module bad signals...

[Burleigh]

(nt)

[Deppdog]

I imagine you are talking about the shutter? I checked it and it's on there really tight. Not sure if I could get it off if I had to, so I'm pretty sure that's not it. I'll check it out again tomorrow to be sure. Thanks!

[Burleigh]

Yeah, the shutter... I've had run in with those before and it always turned out that that darn thing was a liitle losse ans causing all sorts of trouble!

Otherwise, have you checked your valve clearances? That could also make a bit of a difference. Check to be sure you don't have any vacuum leaks either. With the engine running, spray some carb cleaner all around the intake and see if the idle changes any. If so, you've got some unmetered air entering the mix...

[Deppdog]

Gone through all that too. My first thought was a carb issue. When you punch the throttle, it sounds like it is sucking a ton of air, so I may have a couple of things going on. Of course once I discovered the way erratic timing mark, my thoughts turned in that direction.

[TobyB]

Sounds like the mechanical advance in the bottom of the

dizzy has come apart, the bushings are really worn-

or both! when you move the rotor, does it move up and

down, or rotate freely very much? It shouldn't.

But you might also have a fuel delivery issue- maybe something

gunking up the primary main jet... or something

wrong with the aux booster (the bit that fits into the throat of the carb)-

it's possible to put them in backwards, which defeats the main

circuit entirely.

t

[nbristow01]

Mine did this exact thing I I coulde never keep it timed. Finally after taking the dist apart it showed signes of wear on the plates. I tried to rebuild it and get it working smoothly but it was the same. I went ahead and bought a new 009 dist from IE and have never had a problem since.

[02for2]

Two things:

When you're timing it, do you have the vac line pulled from the dizzy and plugged with a golf tee? If not, you should.

Also, with the Crane shutter wheel, you need to rotate the dizzy (engine OFF at TDC) so that the leading edge of the slot of the shutter wheel lines up with the #1 score line on the dizzy body. If not, you should.

Cheers!

[02for2]

Mine did this exact thing I I coulde never keep it timed. Finally after taking the dist apart it showed signes of wear on the plates. I tried to rebuild it and get it working smoothly but it was the same. I went ahead and bought a new 009 dist from IE and have never had a problem since.

????

If your dizzy needs a rebuild, send it off to: Advanced Distributors

Cheers!

[nbristow01]

IE sells a brand new dist for the 02. It is a VW 009 dist modified to work for 02s. Just a very nice new dist. I did not feel the need to spend mooney rebulding my old one when I can have a new one from them just personal preference. Theres works great and I got rid of the vac advance. I prefer a straight mechanical advance dist

[02for2]

You likely didn't know, and maybe others are unaware as well.

But, Advanced can take a vacuum advance distributor and make it totally centrifugal advance. For about the same money as the IE and they totally rebuild it as well.

Cheers!

[kbmb02]

You likely didn't know, and maybe others are unaware as well.

But, Advanced...

Actually, you've done a pretty-good job of plugging advanced distributors!

But, as many know, they're not the only company who can rebuild, re-curve and/or build custom distributors; and Ireland's offering is pretty good as well. -KB

[02for2]

OK... fair enough...actually I didn't mean to plug them at all.

Yes, of course there are many such companies out there and all are probably equally good - this ain't rocket science.

I really only meant to say that you do not have to replace a vac dizzy as any of these Cos. can make it purely mechanical advance and custom curve it to your needs.

But, now that I think of it, I guess I do mean to plug the indy distributor guys out there.

Ireland is gonna make it with or without selling dizzy's.

But the independent guys with the Sun Curve 70 machines are getting more scarce by the year. I think it's an important resource for the classic/collector community and so would like to see them stay around, which means people need to be willing to rebuild rather than buy new.

And for those buying the Ireland unit, what are you planning to do once this unit requires rebuild and Ireland (or anyone else for that matter) no longer sells replacements? Better hope all the Indy's haven't been driven out of business.

Cheers!

[Guest Anonymous]

Any help would be appreciated greatly.

I bought a 1976 2002 with all the smog stuff pulled off in non-running condition. I was told it ran when parked a year ago, and I'm pretty sure that I was told the truth. I did manage to get it running at idle, but I can't accelerate without it bogging down until it dies and/or backfires through the carb. The Weber 32/36 carb has been thoroughly cleaned and rebuilt along with a new accelerator pump and the plastic floats set to 35mm/50mm. My thoughts are steering toward the timing or the distributor. It has a vacuum advance/retard disty with a Crane XR3000. I static timed it with the mark on the cam pulley, the flywheel and the rotor, then checked it with the light. The timing mark on the flywheel is bouncing around like a Mexican Jumping Bean, in and out of the window. I can't seem to get it set right or to hold even somewhat still. When the disty is set, the idle will bounce around as much as 1000 or more rpms along with the bouncing timing mark. I am thinking the advance/retard is binding up and maybe it's time for a rebuild or new disty, preferably one without retard. I did check the advance and retard vacuum, and it seems fine. But the advance is disconnected and plugged to set the timing anyway. Any ideas or thoughts? Thanks in advance!!!

Steve D

Before buying a new distributor or even having yours rebuilt, I would consider retro-fitting the distributor with points and condenser. I had an Allison unit that would act up without warning and it wasn't until I swapped modules did the problem completely disappear. Interestingly, the cursed module worked fine in another project, but the problem reappeared when I moved it back to the 02. While your distributor might be worn or the advance springs fatigued or the weights are stuck, you ought to be able to determine that by hand. You would also notice this if the timing mark remained fairly static and did not advance with throttle opening or engine speed.

A jumping timing mark will occur with any distributor - if you have a mismatched cap and rotor or a cap with a worn or missing center carbon contact. What does your rotor look like? Could it be the wrong size? Could something other than the distributor be causing a misfire, such as an overly lean mixture caused by bad jetting or a vacuum leak.

If your engine is basically stock, a fully centrifugal distributor might cure one problem but create another, i.e., leave you without a few degrees of welcome advance that is built into your current distributor. Read through the archives and you will discover that the vacuum advance is not necessarily a bad thing either.

hth