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A few days ago I was driving my '86 Z28 Camaro with 5.0L engine, and after escaping from about 30 minutes of stop-and-go I put the car into second gear and got serious sputtering when I tried to accelerate. I solved it for about 5 seconds by dropping back into first, but when I attempted to go into second again shortly after the car sputtered and stalled out, and then refused to restart. The car would crank like normal, but there was no sign of the engine catching or even attempting to catch, just a continuous cranking sound.
After getting it towed to a shop, they looked at it the next day and got both fuel and spark, but it refused to start until several hours later when they looked at it again and all signs of the problem had disappeared. They kept it overnight and attempted to look for the problem, but the car was back to being fully functional as far as they could tell.
Now lucky for me they had a veteran GM tech to work on it, and he said the problem was almost certainly from my distributor starting to go bad, and he recommended I replaced the entire distributor assembly, including the distributor, ignition coil, cap, and rotor, and the estimate for all of that is $890.
Does that sound correct to everyone here, or is this just the shop attempting to get more money out of me?
Now if that does turn out to be accurate, how hard would it be to replace the distributor myself? I know for a fact that the previous owner was an experienced camaro tech and replaced the cap and rotor for me when I bought the car 3 and a half years ago so I doubt they're at fault, but since I found a distributor that includes all of its components for $110, it seems like I might as well replace the whole thing. Anyone have a guide or experience that they can walk me through with? My shop book tells me how to disassemble the distributor, but nothing on how to remove it from the car.
im sorry but wtf are they thinking. you can get a new billet didi with coil and wires for like 120 on ebay. accell brand. i got one for my 89 rs 305 a couple years ago. very happy. sorry just dont want to see someone waste thast much if they dont have to
Holy smokes that a lot of money for a bad icm.
Throw a new icm at , if it needs a new cap put a cap on it.
It's not rocket silence to put the engine to top dead center on number one cylinder and loosen a 9/16 bolt. Remove and reinstall the rotor facing number 3/5 cylinders. Unplug the est tan/blk stripe wire. Set the timing to 6dbtdc. Plug the est back in a drive.
Last edited by Tuned Performance; 05-06-2015 at 09:36 PM.
i just did new cap,rotor, coil, pick up coil. icm. wires. plugs. air filters. radiator flush and oil change for 201. so ya id just do a icm and save alot of money
Haha thanks guys, now to be fair they were charging that much for the total distributor change with parts and labor instead of just the icm cap and rotor, but that seemed ridiculous considering its all located in plain view on top of the motor in an easy to access spot.
Would the one I linked in my original post be good to go for my car? It says it would fit, but it also mentions that its HEI and it has "vacuum advance" and I want to make sure that would be okay in what is essentially a stock engine. Also, would I be able to just pop the icm, cap, and rotor out of there and onto the old distributor to start, and then change the whole thing if needed, or would the new cap, rotor, etc only work with the new distributor?
I wouldn't replace the distributor, unless it was blowing oil under the cap !
I would just put a acdelco icm In It with heat sink compound under it as be done.
Mark the wires and the cap 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2
Or something that makes spence to you pull the cap plug wire ends, disconnect the power to the coil, tach signal and wires from the dizzy to the cap. Turn all four hold downs. Pop the cap , remove the rotor, remove the two screws that hold the icm in and the pickup coil wire. Rinse and repeat !
Yeah don't get screwed to the tune of almost $900 for $150 worth of parts and 30 min of labor.
Someone that knows what they are doing can replace the distributor in 15 min easy.
You do not even have to fool with all of that get #1 to TDC crap.
Mark your wires and cap so you will know where they came from.
Firing order is clockwise around cap 1 8 4 3 6 5 7 2
Driver side cylinders front of car to back is number 1 3 5 7
Pass side front to back is 2 4 6 8
(**People that has done it for a few years knows this order by heart and will not even need to mark them**)
Pull wires off cap. Take cap off. Look at where the center of rotor button tip is pointing. Mark the side of dist. base with a sharpie where rotor is pointing. Sit cap back on and mark cap using the mark you made on base.
Take the 9/16" head bolt and clamp off, lift dist. out.
DO NOT TURN THE ENGINE ANY AT THIS POINT
Mark your new cap and dist. base using the old one as a guide.
Turn the rotor button about 1" before your mark on dist. base. Put new dist. in the engine, as the gear meshes up the rotor will turn clockwise and dist. will fully seat down.
Your rotor will be on the mark and installed in same place as the old one was pulled out.
Put cap on, clamp and bolt, wires, etc and go for a joy ride and think of what you can do with the $700 you just saved
Or bring the car to me and I'll do it for half what your shop quoted you and even throw in a set of good performance plug wires to go with it
Thanks for all the help and guides everybody, it'll probably be 2-3 weeks before I get it done but now I'm pretty confident and glad to be saving $700!
05-06-2015, 09:22 PM
