I can't seem to lock down the bottom screw on the distributer cap. The top one holds it tightly enough to work fine but the bottom one never grabs. Am I missing something? Thanks

 

 

I should also add, if you had the cap off to replace the rotor :

You MUST make sure the set screw is held in very tight in the rotor or it will vibrate out and lead you to the next problem. A mysterious shut down or a no start issue.

I bought a beautiful, non running '84 - 944 which has the M456 option ( sport shocks and h.d. anti-sway bars ) with a whole list of very nice options. Leather sport seats. Sport steering wheel. LSD. High end stereo. New paint and low miles. It was originally a one owner 'estate' car of the Glendale, CA lady who bought it new, left to her nephew in Las Vegas. He had only had it a short while and one evening it shut off as he pulled it into his garage. NO start. He thought he broke the belt and valves had met pistons.

I bought the car for what he was asking, which 10 years ago was little to nothing, mainly because of the condition, cost, and I had a spare engine and another extra head. Figuring the worst, I trailered the car home and on the second or third day of chasing various scenarios, a friend and I discovered the rotor set screw had fallen out and caused the rotor to stop 'rotor-ing'.

It always amazes me that sometimes the very simplest of overlooked items can cause the unexpected, and lead to an enormous loss of patience, time, money, and in my case, all those things plus a beautiful car nearly given away by the previous owner.

Check your rotor set screws folks. It happens more often than one may think.

 

I followed your advice and all went perfectly