Distributor repair 101. The moronic approach.

[four.rings@MCIONE.com]

It's easy.
Position the crank in the TDC. Take the distributor out. Replace the
broken plastic housing for Hall sensor. Put the distributor back in the
car observing the rotor to be pointing at the #1 cyl.
Start the car. What the hell, it won't start?
Check the spark presence. What do you mean there's no spark?
Aha, I musta screwed the Hall sensor wires when I was fishing them
through the new housing! Get your faithful Wavetech 2000 and check for
continuity/shorts. Everything's OK.
Spend the next 2 hours on a full blown Bentley analysis of the whole
damn ignition sys.
Everything's OK. Hmmm....
Go upstairs, crack open a Mackeson Triple Stout to clear up the brain,
clouded by the gasoline fumes. Recall that a while ago Scott Mo. warned
that the distributor is sensitive to the accurate mark position and that
10° make the difference between the Start and No Start conditions.
Go downstairs back to the garage bring engine to TDC. Pop the
distributor cap. Notice that the rotor is slightly off the #1 scoring on
the distributor body.
Loosen the 13mm nut, turn the distributor approx 15° aligning the rotor
perfectly with the scoring. Start the car from a quarter-turn. Call
yourself a dumb schmuck. Go back and finish that Mackeson Triple Stout.
Wonder if you ever learn to think first then do and not the other way
around.

Thanks for listening. I feel better now.
 
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Igor Kessel
'89 200TQ -- 18psi (TAP)
'98 A4TQ -- nothing to declare
Philadelphia, PA
USA
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Garage/8949/homepage.html
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