1988 Camaro tbi 305. Had a crank but no start condition. My mechanic says it needs a distributor which is $140

That's okay but he's asking $300 labor. Is this high? I always thought installing a sbc distributor especially on non tpi cars was a short job...this is for a 88 305 TBI Camaro.

Also would it be wise for me to ask them to just put a new cap and rotor, its unclear why they wish to replace the entire distributor...

any advice is appreciated. Thanks

 

Get a new mechanic or do it yourself. There's nothing difficult about it. That's an insanely high cost. You would have to be very incompetent to take a whole hour to do it
And has he really tested the distributor to arrive at that conclusion, or is he just guessing because there is no spark? Could be coil, ignition module, wiring, etc. Ask him what he actually tested

 

I'm going to go to the shop first thing tomorrow morning and I am going to ask him what he tested. Isn't it common practice to replace the cap and rotor and not the entire distributor anyways? I do appreciate your response so if he says he tested the distributor....better yet what should I ask him when I see him tomorrow face to face? I dont want to sound unknowledgable...

I told him to not fo any work until I speak to him further.

thanks again

 

Might be as simple as a bad icm. The distributor doesn’t have to come out for that.
buy a timing light and do it yourself.

https://easyautodiagnostics.com/gm/4...ed-icm-tests-1

 

It's possible the body is worn out and the shaft is flopping around. That's about the only reason you need to replace the entire distributor. All the other components are replaceable.

As for time wise, it's not as simple as just pulling the old one out and dropping in a new one. $300 labor is still a little high even if the shop rate was $100/hour.

 

Most of the time, if the dist is still the original, by the time the ICM fails, everything mechanical about it is wore out too. The reluctor (magnet pole piece) is falling apart, bushings are worn out, pickup coil is crumbling to dust, electrical connectors are all corroded and intermittent, etc. etc. etc. In that case it makes no sense whatsoever to buy an ignition module for it; it's still gonna run like crap and fail randomly at the worst possible moments.

Best to just change it out.

Takes about 15 - 20 minutes, tow-in to drive-out, to swap it out; not counting charging the batt enough to start the car if the owner is one of those idiots that whirls a dead motor over with the starter, perhaps in hope that the motor will heal itself, (I'm just guessing here... no idea what a person stupid enough to do this would be "thinking" or "hoping", the same kind of person will do the same thing when they run the car out of gas) until the batt is drained flat. In that case it'll take an extra few minutes unless you are aware that the owner is an idiot and plan ahead and start charging it before doing the swap. Also it's possible for the dist to be extremely stuck in the block from varnish and gunk if the oil hasn't been kept changed, which can cause all manner of grief to get it out.

If the dist is fairly new and the module fails, then it does make sense to change it out. This instance doesn't smell like one of those though.

 

This is the problem the car was towed into the mechanic with a brand new battery installed. And he wants 300 to install the distributor. This is someone who helped me with my diesel trucks in the past without screwibg me over like this so is there any reason a mechanic would charge that insane of a labor cost to install a distributor on a 305 tbi sbc?

 

at a shop rate of $80 what should it be approximately?

 

$300 is way to high. Buy a cheap timing light and 9/16 distributor wrench. Rotate the engine to top dead center
note the rotor orientation. You might want to mark plug wires. 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2.
remove the distributor. Stab in the new one. Adjust timing until it runs on its own. Warm it up and disconnect the est timing wire. Set timing with the timing light to tdc. Done !
call around there are common labor guides. No way it’s going to cost $300 in labor.

 

Without knowing how he came to the conclusion that the distributor is at fault, it's hard to say; he may be simply hedging his bets because he's not yet certain what's wrong. Either that, or he's expecting other problems to become apparent when he gets in there, such as crumbling plug wires, etc.

A simple R&R of a distributor in that engine should require---at most---one hour of shop time.

 

Is he also doing plugs and wires? Is there diagnostic time involved? If there's diagnostic labor and distributor, plugs, and wires - could easily be $300 in labor.

R&R of the distributor by itself is a book time of 1.3 hours according to Snap-On (Mitchell).

Plug wires are 1.3 (1.5 if you are fabricating from a bulk set), and the plugs themselves are 0.9

Everything together would be 3.5 or 3.7, which at $80/Hr is $280 or $296

Also - $140 with a shop markup (likely 100%) is a CHEAP distributor. You don't want that. Get one from DUI.

GD