Thread: What the hell happened inside my distributor? Pictures inside

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Based on the not wanting to start issue. The rotor was prob. broken and cocked. Bad motor mounts or torqing of the engine, like has been said, disti hits the fire wall, rotor hits the cap, breaks the plastic holding the rotor tang straight. Should have been noticed looking at the rotor. After you get it running check your motor mounts under load or it may do it again. Been there done that.

Yea this is a truck that's been driven a bit though so the existing system should be good. I just picked it up about a month ago and was driving it almost daily to get the bugs out of it. I'm hoping this is more of a freek thing and replacing the cap and rotor will be good. The rotor looks fine so.

Originally Posted by sfort

Based on the not wanting to start issue. The rotor was prob. broken and cocked. Bad motor mounts or torqing of the engine, like has been said, disti hits the fire wall, rotor hits the cap, breaks the plastic holding the rotor tang straight. Should have been noticed looking at the rotor. After you get it running check your motor mounts under load or it may do it again. Been there done that.

I'll check the mounts for sure, the rotor looks ok though

Originally Posted by pepi

I agree with Pat those are mechanical related and not arcing. Distributer rubbing the fire wall is a good thought, any external marks on the outside of the cap you could have overlooked? Your sure the cap was on correctly, you said the unit itself is in good shape. I to would also like to see the rotor that would be a key shot to put up as Dave Severson pointed out. The button to me shows mechanical or rubbing damage looks like the collar it lives in is chipped . How about those contacts under the scratched area, anything going on there, can not tell from the angle of the photo what the condition of them could be.

The contacts look ok, it's hard to tell but the cap isn't chipped but it is a scorch mark

Here's the rotor

Originally Posted by 1923tbucket

Yea this is a truck that's been driven a bit though so the existing system should be good. I just picked it up about a month ago and was driving it almost daily to get the bugs out of it. I'm hoping this is more of a freek thing and replacing the cap and rotor will be good. The rotor looks fine so.

Oh now I get it this was a new toy so to speak and you really had no history/seat time in it. Well, then I guess you are finding bugs, the rotor looks ok and so good I think what you see in the cap may have been there the whole time and the button finally gave the ghost up. There may very well be nothing at all wrong in there, the last owner did not fix it right the first go around. New cap may be all that is needed.

Yea I did the cap and rotor anyways. Went to start it now I have a grinding noise. I'm done for the night now. I'm not sure if it's just a fluke with the starter or what, that's what it sounds like anyways.

That's hotrodding solving one problem at a time. It is worth the trouble in the end, not to mention all you learn as you go, before you know it you will run out of stuff to fix LOL .. Then your golden.

Yep I plan on doing ocean city with it next year in may. That's a 4 1/2 hour drive from where I am, but I'm looking forward to it

So she turns over nicely now and fire right up but stumbles as if out of time and dies. I could tell it got better by adjusting the distributor but it's as far advanced as it can physically go without rotor adjustment. So I need to get the harmonic balancer at the Tdc mark on the compression stroke so I can set the rotor at number 1. Normally I've done this by just cranking the nut on the balancer. Not this one. It has an accessory drive on the front and this motor has some crazy compression evidentially. Any suggestions without getting lucky by tapping the key?

Pull the plugs and rotate it with a breaker bar on the balancer nut. Sounds to me like you're a tooth off on the distributor relative to the cam. If you're out of adjustment room on the distributor, but not yet back to TDC you need to pull the distributor and move it back a tooth.

Here are a couple...Could just rewire the sockets on the cap using Chevy as an example; what is now plug wire #1 remove that and place it in the socket where #8 wire is; then put #8 wire in the socket where #4 wire is and continue all around, 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2

I hope this is clear, the cap does not care what wire is in what socket as long as the order is correct. Could also just pull the distributor up and rotate it. If it is hitting the firewall now, clock the rotor more towards the fire wall that will move the sweet spot back or out from the firewall or whatever it is hitting.

Getting to TDC using the balancer bolt to rotate the motor is never a good idea, there is a great little fixture that attaches to the balancer . I will say that getting TDC and moving the rotor is the best and least trouble. The suggestions can take longer to achieve more advancement adjustability, the down side is going the wrong direction the first time. .

Move the wires as pepi suggested and then put a vacuum gauge on it and adjust the dist. for the highest reading and back it off just a tad and you will be awfully close.

Like Pat said I had that happen to me once.. broken motor mount engine rasied and moved cap.

Sorry for the delay guys, Im juggling overtime at work, college courses and term papers, trying to sell a t bucket, and roughly 6 hours a week at the gym.

Im going to get on it here after I get back from the gym tonight. When I was advancing the distributor it seemed to get better, I may still have a miss though. I verified my plug wire order on the distributor and it is correct. Im going to try to correct it by pulling the distributor and moving the rotor counter clock wise a tooth. I would move the plug wires but they are on there so tightly I dont feel like messing with them.

BTW on the carb. I tried adjusting fuel on the fly quick and did not count the turns. Its a 750 holley on a .030 over motor with a mild cam. I know the 351 on a 600 holley on my mustang rule of thumb was 1 1/2 turns out from fully seated to start.