Hey guys,
I just replaced the distributor on my Camaro because it went bad and all rusty on the pickup coil, and I was wondering, why did it get like that? This was the original distributor from 1992, and original cap and rotor, which were in great shape before replacing them. Im just wondering, how did water get in there and rust this thing away? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

was it actual rust? or just orangish looking stuff on it? if so, then it was just the ion buildup from many years of being in the car.

 

It's an annoying thing called condensation, water in the air, the air is in the distributor and so is the water.



Not really much you can do about it though.
On my 79 GMC Jimmy I had the cap and wires gooped up with silicone to seal them and ran a vacuum line to the air cleaner, seemed to help keep it dry when we were running in the mud.

I have looked inside 2 92 and 1 91 Camaro’s and all had some rust in them.
I like to pull the distributor cap off when I do a tune up and check it, I also wipe the inside of the distributor with a rag that has some WD40 on it, that seems to help.