As much as we take care of the obvious some things just never come to mind. My well maintained 89 Iroc died a few weeks ago without so much as a hint of trouble, just up and quit. I finally got around to repairing it and found the pickup plug in the distributor melted where it attached to the ignition module. When I took the module out I found there was no remnants of the die-electric grease left. The ign module is a thick film hybrid IC and uses the dist base for cooling. The grease eventually dries up and thermal conduction from the IC diminishes causing the IC to run very hot and eventually failing. It is probably not a bad idea every few years to remove it, clean the rear of the module and the dist base and recoat the IC with new thermal transfer grease. A tip for those who care, don't use the conventional clear so called heat sink compound or die-electric grease. Got to an electronic supplier and get the white heat sink compound. It containes zinc in a suspension and has much better thermal transfer then the clear compound. Apply a thin coat to the rear of the module on the metal then mount the module and run the screws in finger tight. Remove the module and look ay the dist base where the module contacted it and smear the grease around adding a little more if needed. Smear the module again so the grease is uniformly coated and then mount it again. Torque it to spec, wait a few minutes and go back and retighten it as the compound will push out the side as it compresses. The compound is good for a few years with underhood temps. May not sound like much, but it could save you a tow.

 

thanks man...

 

great post, mine is failing - took it apart to see it had melted the plug as well.