pantera43

Gents, I'm changing out my distributor caps/rotors. Any suggestions as to make the job easier as to not confuse crossing wires? Suggestions for been there done that to make the job easier?

Thanks,
Dan

elbeee964

There might be a yellow sticker on the top of the engine cooling fan that helps.

Draw a sketch before pulling dizzy wires of how the plug wire tops are oriented/sardined. It's a tight fit at the dizzy picnic table, as you can see -- so a cheater-sketch helps tons.

(Hey -- someone post a picture of plug top arrangements)

Both distributor caps are embossed w/ numbers = cylinder #'s. And they're interchangeable.

Align the numbers as best you can align the dizzy bolt down points, so that "5" is forward, and "4" is toward the rear.

Otherwise-
The plug wires are numbered, such as "II - 5", or "I - 2"
II = distributor that's easiest to get to = distributor for all the lower spark plugs
I = distributor that buried down in there = upper spark's distributor

1,2,3,4,5,6 = cylinder number's
1, is rear-most, left side
4, is rear-most, right side
6, is furthest forward, right side

spark wires run in four groups of 3 wires.
Two of those groups go to "II" and run off to passages going 'under' the car.
The "I" pair of 3's all run off to places along the topside of the engine.

pantera43

Lonnie, thanks for the detailed description and info. I seem to have bigger problems though.While switching everything out and installing the new rotor I noticed one of the rotors spins freely around. Does this mean the "dreaded broken distributor belt"? Damn!

Dan

elbeee964

yuup. That's what it sounds like.

Time to start a new thread...

pantera43

Yep, what a bummer. I noticed when I was placing the new rotor on the outboard distributor their was a sudden jerk and then the rotor spun 360 degrees.. The belt must have been hanging by a thread. The upside I suppose is that it happened at home and I noticed it. Amazingly the car starts up but I noticed a very slight power drop. The engine does not rev as crisp.

Dan

dfinnegan

Don't run the engine with the secondary belt broken unless you disconnect the igniter on the front of the secondary coil.

elbeee964

Was there a breather tube going into your dizzy? (EWW! -- Bonus points! -- there's a dizzy pic in that link that's clearly showing wire top orientations... for your when you rehook up those lines.)

If not -- right after disconnecting the coil line to that 'hidden'/"I"/slave dizzy (great catch, dfinn) -- add the $12 dizzy breather update mod to your list.

huh. another bonus point... that last link shows dizzy belt replacement is inexpensive at $8.

pantera43

dfinnegan, when you say disconnect the coil wire do you mean the lead wire at the coil itself or the distributor?

Lonnie, no it didn't have the ventilation kit. Thanks for the links, great info. I'll be sure to add it to my order.

Thanks again for your help,

Dan

dfinnegan

See this thread. The coil igniter connections are circled in blue in one of the pics.

pantera43

Got it. Lonnie and dfinnegan thank you for taking the time to post the info and threads. Hugh help!

Dan

dfinnegan

One more link; in case you are inclined to replace the belt yourself.

I don't think the original site is still up. At least, the link doesn't work, but I had a copy of the page.

Good luck getting it all straightened out.

Cheers,
Dave

Kahdmus

If you don't feel like doing the belt change you may still want to remove the dist. yourself. There are a number of places I've seen advertised that will send you a fresh one by return mail for a fairly reasonable price. I'm sure others can chime-in with names of the best places offering this.

pantera43

Dave, thats exactly what I've been searching for. Truthfully, after reviewing it this might be a little beyond me.

Kahdmus, as you mentioned the worst case scenario is I get the the distributor out and send it out. At least I understand the mechanics of it and whats involved. I'll do a search and see if I can find the best person to fix it.

Thanks again,

Dan

dfinnegan

I have saved the following reference for distributor rebuilding. No affilication.
You will, of course, need to evaluate your own abilities, but, as a point of reference, the distributor belt replacement job was the first I tackled on my car. With help from this site I was able to pull the distributor, replace the belt, and get it all back together again. Prior to this job I had changed the oil once or twice, on a car I had as a kid!

If you do tackle the job there are two tips I can offer:

1. Alight the crank at Z1 top dead center for the #1 cylinder before removing the distribor
2. Do not pull the entire distributor housing apart

Many of the references I read said to make a mark to ensure that you get the distributor set back correctly. I did this, but I also set the Z1 position on the crank. This makes it easier as the distributor housing has notches for top dead center for the #1 cylinder. I found mine to be slightly "off", but did go back exactly where the marks I made were.

As for pulling the housing apart, I found a reference which, I believe came originally from JasonAndreas, which stated that you could simply drift the pins in the secondary to allow the housing to free up enough to get the new belt on. This helped a great deal as it is then not necessary to grind off the retaining dimples. Pictures would help, I know. I'll see if I can find them.

At any rate, the trickiest part was drilling out the pin in the shaft. And that wasn't really difficult. Just a bit nerve wracking.

All the best,
Dave

pantera43

Dave, really appreciate and a big thank you you taking the extra time for the links and information provided. After reading them I might just take this on. I 'll see what it looks like on the bench. If not Mark Cohen seems like the man.

Dan