ruberbanman126

I did a full tune up yesterday, got it all done and started the car, there was a ticking/clicking sound coming from the distributor so i pulled it off and the rotor was rubbing up against the top of the cap, at first the rotor was not down all the way, i fixed it and it is still doing it, what could the problem be?
im not sure if it maters or not but the distributor is rusted.
any and all help would be appriciated!,

Brian21

I had that exact same thing happen to me when I tuned up my firebird for the first time about a month ago. I didn't seat the rotor all the way and it broke a piece of the distributor cap off. It was making a pretty noticable ticking sound.
Did you check the inside of your cap to make sure everything is intact?

ruberbanman126

yes that was the first thing i checked, does it mater if there is rust on the distributor?

Brian21

Well, I'm still relatively new to these cars myself, so I'm not really sure if rust could be your ticking noise or not. But a buddy of mine was guiding me while I had the issue your having after a tune up, and he just told me during the course of the tune-up, I most likely broke something in the cap (which it was in my case), or something in the distributor came loose and was now rubbing and causing the tick.

ruberbanman126

i put on the old cap and rotor just to see if it did it again, and it didnt. so im sending the new cap and rotor back and getting them replaced. another thing that i noticed was once i was done putting the old stuff back on, when i fired it up, the RPM guage was all over the place, does any one know what this might be, did i mess up a sensor or something like that?

slow_90firebird

I believe a sign of a bad ign module is the tach bouncing erratically.

You might have gone the route I did - autozone had a cardone remanufactured distributor with a new ign module, p/u coil, points, gear, all that. That was $100 after I returend the core. Then I got the "Duralast Gold" cap + rotor kit. They are like $30 for a pretty nice cap and rotor.

ruberbanman126

if that was the problem, would you hear the RPM's going up and down or would it just be the needle on the guage, because all that is wrong is the needle on the guage is bouncing a lot.

ruberbanman126

i just checked to see if the old cap and rotor were rubbing and they were, could this be the reason for the tach jumping, and what could i have done that they keep rubbing?
any and all help is appriciated.

naf

iTrader: (7)

Tach bouncing is a sign of a bad distributor pick up coil. Rotor hitting the cap could be a worn out distributor shaft allowing the rotor to wobble. Both can be fixed with a reman distributor (as can the rust). I'm NOT saying you need to replace your distributor, but when a reman one costs $100 and comes with a $30 module, it's something to consider.