Well, what the heck! I have the dist cap off and am inspecting cap and rotor. Cap terminals inside have some white corrosion, not too bad, where the spark must be jumping from the rotor. The rotor tip is very rough, feels like sandpaper, and looks pretty black. There is some black carbon dust at the bottom of the rotor.

So it looks like the cap is OK, and the rotor is slightly burned, so I planned to go ahead and replace them both. The cap is off, but the rotor refuses to budge. There are no hold-down screws on it. It won't pull off. I haven't really yanked on it since I don't want to hurt the dist. Does the thing under the rotor (the reluctor ?) have to come off along with the rotor ? What's the big secret here ?

Thanks



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88 GTA Charcoal Grey Bone Stock except for loose muffler which makes it a bit louder than normal.

 

No, the relustor has nothing to do with it, they can just be a bear to get off. Just takes some elbow grease.

You can try heatsoaking the rotor with a hairdryer, I've used a heat gun before and it seemed to help..use gloves when you grab on to it.

Make sure you clean up the dust on the base once things are apart. Also clean up the shaft once the rotor is off. Last time I replaced mine I coated the shaft with a light film of di-electric (sp?) grease, but haven't removed it yet to see if it helps or not.

 

Ah, good to know it is supposed to just come off by itself. Maybe I can tap it gently on the side with a hammer and not mess up the dist. I do have a hair dryer lying around somewhere, so I'll try that too. I suppose there's no way to get some liquid wrench up there. Maybe with a bent spray tube.

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88 GTA Charcoal Grey Bone Stock except for loose muffler which makes it a bit louder than normal.

 

Don't try LW any other penetrating oil, it won't work and will just make a mess, and may cause issues later.

 

all you have to do is pry on it gently with a screwdriver...it will come off. mine was a lil tough

 

Question. What the hell is a relustor/reluctor? Or whatever your referring to? There's the pickup coil, ignition coil, module, resistor, shaft, rotor, cap, gears, drive pin, base, weights, springs, vacuum canister, hold-down clamp, and plug wires, but I've never heard of a "whachyamacallit". What part/section of the distributor, or ignition system are you asking about?

I'm just curious so that maybe you, or I, will learn something.

 

Someone told me tho check the cap, rotor, and reluctor. I * guess * the reluctor is that thing under the rotor. Massive lack of knowledge here, unfortunately.
BTW, I did get the rotor off, just by pulling straight up a little harder. Just popped off. I filed off the tip, which was crusty and black and felt like sandpaper, got clean shiny brass. The cap terminals inside were silver and where the rotot contacts them they were white, but not grooved up too much. So I think the cap is pretty new. I put the cleaned up rotor back in, and fired her up. Still got the rough running problem. Maybe I should replace the whole cap and rotor anyway. The rotor was "Delco / Remy" and had "Made in USA" stamped on it. Does that mean it is original equipment ?



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88 GTA Charcoal Grey Bone Stock except for loose muffler which makes it a bit louder than normal.

 

I typo'ed the s...should have been a c.

The reluctor is the "star" shaped whatch-a-ma-call-it, under the rotor.

It, coupled with the PU coil, cause a magnetic field to be used as the dwell for the ignition.