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Help a paranoid '02er: Distributor wear...


Guest Anonymous

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Guest Anonymous

So my tach needle keeps jumping around despite my cleaning the ground behind the dash, checking that all related connections I can think of are tight, putting in a new point plate and re-setting the point gap. Now the car is pinging like crazy and idle speed is up, though I didn't change anything to make it do so. I can retard the timing (seems like it's too advanced), but why would it do this all of a sudden? Gas going bad in the tank?

And what direction is play in the distributor shaft bad? I have no vertical or horizontal play, but I can rotate the rotor a few degrees either direction before I meet resistance.

Thanks. Driving to Texas next week and I'm getting paranoid about the car for some reason...

-Dave

Colorado '71, stock dang near everything

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Guest Anonymous

It sounds to me like you changed timing by replacing the plate and points. Remember that by changing point gap, you change timing.

As far as the jumping tach - I believe that is a byproduct of the timing being out so far.

Just a suggestion: Get a Pertronix and forget about points forever.

Good Luck,

Mike (#87)

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Guest Anonymous

Mike's right. Do yourself a favor. Convert that old mechanical distributor to an upgraded electronic ignition system. Kits are not expensive considering the benefits. I've spent countless hours setting points/timing using a dental mirror, feeler gauge and strobe light. An exercise in futility because the mechanical system is fickle. Believe me you'll wonder why you didn't upgrade earlier. Good luck!

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Guest Anonymous

...and the pinging and high idle showed up after resetting the point gap. D'oh!

The gap was too tight before. Could I have gone from having the tach jump because the gap was too tight to having the tach jump because the timing is too advanced? Am I that unlucky?

-Dave

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Guest Anonymous

Pertronix is great (I have it in both my cars), but it does not overcome the slop in a worn distributor. Worn shaft bearings will still add timing jitter, and worn advance mechanisms will still give incorrect advance.

Normally there's about 5 degrees of slop in the rotor rest position. You should be able to turn it 10-15 degrees (half of whatever the mech advance spec is) in one direction, and it should return under spring action.

If your timing light has an advance function, you can check the timing at several points between idle and 3000 RPM to see if the mechanical advance is working.

If your distributor is original and your mileage is normal for a 71, your distributor is probably worn out.

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Guest Anonymous

...but I thought the non-tii units were NLA. Do I need to find one used?

As an aside, if that's the case, what do we do when the supply of good used ones runs dry? Go with mechanical-advance distributors?

-Dave

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