Rockit

I heard here someone mention the distributors have a timing belt that connected them. Is that accurate ? If so when should that be changed?

I have my engine out for maintenance work (new valve covers, rennline and other work) and I remembered someone mentioned that.

I will research it further but if someone can get me up to speed I would appreciated it.

Will post pics tonight when I have more time.

Railmaster.

No official service interval but change it if engine is out anyway. If the belt snap when You drive, simply disconnect the second distributor electrically and change the belt ASAP.

pp000830

Replace Internal distributor belt - IF by 80K miles it has not been done once in the past; A broken belt can cause significant consequential damage to the engine so checking for a working belt should be done regularly on all cars and any time you perceive a change in engine performance, idle or other ignition issue. I do a quick check once a year just to be on the safe side. To test just unplug the directly driven distributor’s coil wire. The directly driven distributor is the one where the base of the distributor bolts to the engine case. If the car starts and runs at all with only the belt driven distributor’s coil wire attached the belt is in place, if not it is most likely broken. If the belt is found to be broken and you must drive the car to have it serviced leave only the directly driven distributor’s coil attached to minimize the risk of out of timing cylinder detonation damaging the engine. It may be advisable to periodically test the directly driven distributor as well as it could suffer from an ignition module related failure that has gone undetected. Such a failure can effect the smoothness of idle and emissions.
Andy