Addendum to distributor woes-'86 5kT (MC motor)

["William P. Magliocco" <wmagliocco@sprintmail.com>]

Additional information:

If the WX and the four ringed ratholes cooperate today, I would like to
swap the distributor from the working car to the "el cheapo special".  The
concern that I have is that the distributors are slightly different-the
good one has a 14 mm shaft where the rotor mounts, the broken one has a 10
mm shaft at that same point.  

Jim Blau recently sent me two rotors as part of a tune-up kit (using the
one that fits), now I know why he did that.

The salient question is this-can the distributors be swapped out in total,
or is the gearing different too?  I'd rather not attempt a swap only to
find the gears are incompatible.

TIA, Bill

Original post:


>Date: Sat, 13 Nov 1999 20:21:49 -0500
>To: q-list
>From: "William P. Magliocco" <wmagliocco@sprintmail.com>
>Subject: distributor woes-'86 5kT (MC motor)
>
>Ok, the "el cheapo special" is now mine.  Pandora's box is now open for 
>business:
>
>I installed the intercooler bypass hose, and it won't start.  Pulling the 
>engine codes will give me an intermittent 2113-hall effect bad or hall 
>effect mistimed.  The fun begins.
>
>I examine the distributor, and observe that I can rotate the whole assembly 
>by hand.  The nut securing the "holder fork" was loose.  I compared the 
>distributors' position to my operational '86 5kT, and find it to be way off. 
> I rotate the distributor to approx. where the good one is and lock it down. 
> The next time, I get 4444 when I pull the error code, but still no start 
>'cause the cap is off. 
>
>I then notice that the upper "lip" of the distributor itself is not round.  
>I try to bend it back to normal and snap-some metal comes off.  Looking at 
>the inside of the distributor cap, I find it has been cracked all the way 
>around, and a nice chunk was gone.  Connector for the ecu is loose where it 
>should be firmly attached to the alloy metal.
>
>I produce a good used distributor cap out of the trunk, and try to install 
>it.  One of the mounting springs was gone too.  
>
>I tried to put the cap on as best as I could, but then I got the 2113 error 
>again.
>
>Finally, I took the distributor out of the car and see a very good sized 
>chunk is gone on the alloy metal of the case, especially where the hall 
>effect connector goes in, also right around where the missing cap spring 
>would connect.
>
>Sad part is, that the distributor, cap and rotor were very new.  PO says 
>that some mechanic changed them in error.  The cap and top half of the 
>distributor were very clean.
>
>Good news was that I was able to get spark straight out of the coil to 
>ground when I cranked the car over.
>
>SO here is the point of the matter-has anyone seen anything quite like 
>this...did the little accident on the front of the car somehow cause the 
>distributor to go bad?  Or was it due to the loose "holder fork" , courtesy 
>of the monkey lads?
>
>TIA, Bill