This is definitely a new one for me, and its nothing I've ever seen on the forums so I'll give it a shot. Today I took off the distributor cap. Both screws came out fine. They were snug, I unscrewed them, and out they came. When I go to put them back in not 5 minutes later, the threads on the driver side are so stripped the screw falls right through. I have no idea what happened, I used absolutely no force on them whatsoever. They must have been "almost gone" and unscrewing them one last time did them in.

What should I do? I cant put my cap back on.

 

try a self tapping screw one size up, maybe in metric or jb weld the hole and redrill and tap it

 

Or maybe a longer screw with a small nut underneath the distributor hole.

 

That's what I'd suggest. If that doesn't work try like ede said and redrill it or try a self tapping screw.

 

[QUOTE=Darkshot;3011256]This is definitely a new one for me, and its nothing I've ever seen on the forums so I'll give it a shot. Today I took off the distributor cap. Both screws came out fine. They were snug, I unscrewed them, and out they came. When I go to put them back in not 5 minutes later, the threads on the driver side are so stripped the screw falls right through. I have no idea what happened, I used absolutely no force on them whatsoever. They must have been "almost gone" and unscrewing them one last time did them in.

What should I do? I cant put my cap back on.[/QUOT
E]

 

Not sure why this got revived after more than 14 yrs without any new content; but if you have the same problem that this post was about, I'd recommend a Heli-Coil repair.

 

I wonder if this problem would go away if they had a captcha in place during the registration process. I have seen this same sort of broken quote first post with no added content a few times on here now, along with many Mike Smith and Ted Johnson bots saying how important it is to have a good locksmith and where one can be found near a major US city.

 

The point you guys should be taking from this is when using steel screws going into aluminum/magnesium etc. You should be using anti seize, even on distributor cap screws.

To the guy that brought this up. Find an sae or metric tap that is slightly larger, for example if the original screw and threads were 10-32.. go to a 12-24 tap, and lightly ream out the new cap. The truck is to only go as big as you have to. Most of the time a metric slightly larger works great. 5 bucks for a tap, and 75 cents for the screw at most hardware stores Just make a mental note of it for the next time you do a tune up. And use antisieze I would advise against a helicoil in this instance, because odds are in 5 years when it gets changed again it will have walked the coil out and caused more damage.
The good news is distributors are cheap for these cars now, the electronics may suck since they are cheap imports, but the original hei module and pickups will swap right in As long as you stay with a reputable brand.. cardone is decent, when I was working at midas we installed a fair amount of their stuff and never had a problem with them.We would warranty that kind of stuff for 1 year regardless of manufacturers warranty, we had trouble with autozone duralast ignition products. But never a problem with cardone, standard motor products, ac delco, napa branded stuff was ok.
B Or try a junkyard. They made a lot of tbi 305/350 trucks and the distributor is the same unit. Since it's in a truck it probably was tuned up often, trucks tend to be worked and used. Vs a third gen f body that's probably spent more of it's life sitting than being driven, hence your seized screw and threads that walked out when you tried to change the cap.