there is a constant knock/ping in the distributor cap (used homemade stethoscope to pinpoint it) i recently took the valve cover and a.i.r. off and had to move the boots and i took the cap off. i put it back on and the latches clicked but now there is a knock, gets worse as the engine revs higher. what could this be? thanks in advance

 

If you just removed the boots and put them back on, it could be arcing noise. Make sure they are on right.

 

we labeled them before so they are on the right ones and they are pushed in all the way

 

anybody? bad distributor or what

 

Maybe rotor is hitting one or more of the contacts in the cap?

 

The rotor is supposed to contact the contacts. Have you removed the cap for inspection? This happened simply when you removed two of the plug wires and reconnected them? Make sure the plug wire ends are pushed all the way in the cap. Arcing can make quite a bit of noise.

 

alright thanks, ill check this out tomorrow

 

If you have a rod knock it wont be as apparent if you disconnect the spark plug. Are you sure it's coming from the distributor?

 

Used a homemade stethiscope and heard it there and no other places like the manifolds or valve covers. So I'm pretty sure

 

Id start by taking your cap off and checking out your cap & rotor. Look for anything amiss such as burn marks, signs of rubbing or scratches, things like that. Also check all the terminals

 

fixed it, turned out 2 of the contacts on the distributor cap were lose and rattling, not sure if it affected anything but replaced the rotor and cap and no more knock, but now im noticing my belt making too much noise so i guess its time to replace those

 

I had a similar problem. I bought a new cap and rotor and it still made a whurring sound and you could phyiscally feel a vibration. On the way home the same night, I pulled out into traffic and when it shifted into 2nd gear the car made a loud pop and died. Wouldn't start again. Turned out that the metal ring that is inside the distributor had cracked and finally gave up and completely killed the car, grounding out the ignition module. Rebuilt the distributor and haven't had a problem since.