I can't believe you are having so much difficulty. I am basically mechanically incompetent. If I read the instructions and follow them to a "T", I generally luck out. When i was younger and more foolish my ex-wife and I adjusted lifters on 1972 and 1970 Volvo 4-cylinder engine, put new distributor rotors and caps on the Volvos and an inline 6 AMC pacer. Is everything tucked in properly? Never had to replace a distributor, though. ChicagoPaul--- Tom Tait <TTait@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I was ready to throw in the towel this morning and > order a complete > distributor, but Warren talked me into taking the > weekend to try to find > the root of my problem first, before I just threw > money at the problem. > > > > History: I have just replaced my head gaskets, had > my heads rebuilt and > have reinstalled them, all of that seems ok. > > > > In the past I learned my lesson about not putting > the cap and rotor back > together perfectly, and I know very well to align > the keyway in the > rotor properly and push it all the way down. I am > on very good terms > with the depression in the distributor body that the > cap must key into > and respect it. Tab A squarely into Slot B. I put > my cap on and make > sure it is well seated before I install the clips, > and I know that if > they are impossible to clip, something is wrong. > > > > I had 3 rotors and 2 caps in my collection, all the > right parts. When I > reassembled my distributor the first time I was > cranking the engine over > slowly by hand and heard a terrible squealing. When > I finally opened > the distributor cap I found that the plastic key > inside the rotor had > been sheared off and it could then spin, > begrudgingly, on the shaft. > > > > I thought that perhaps my new cap had a > manufacturing defect and was > binding the rotor somehow so I reassembled > everything with another cap > and a fresh rotor, it happened again. > > > > At Warren's first suggestion I removed my > disintegrating dust cap which > goes under the rotor and protects the impulse coil > and tried it again - > it was fine at first, so I ran the engine with the > starter while using > my timing light. It was fine for about 10 seconds, > then I lost all > spark. I opened the cap and found that my third and > final rotor was > ripped to pieces. > > > > At this point I'm taking Warrens advice and pulling > the distributor off > again, and I'll put in a NAPA rotor tonight and > slowly turn it by hand > looking for signs of binding. > > > > I have learned that I installed the o-ring for the > distributor in the > wrong spot - I ran it all the way up to the bottom > of the distributor > body instead of placing it in the groove on the > shaft, but I can't for > the life of me understand how that would have caused > the problem. > > > > Anyone else run into this before? What else should > I try? > > > > Tom > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been > removed] > > To address comments privately to the moderating team, please address: moderators@xxxxxxxxxxx For more info on the list, tech articles, cars for sale see www.dmcnews.com To search the archives or view files, log in at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:dmcnews-digest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx mailto:dmcnews-fullfeatured@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: dmcnews-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/