Well, this past weekend, that damn drum finally came off. I had been soaking it with PB Blaster for about a week before Saturday, and I guess it finally took hold. It took a lot of banging again, but it finally started to inch forward. The shoes look nice and thick, just like the other side! I think the guy had the brakes done and then blew up the motor. The wheel cylinders looked fine, no leaks, the springs weren't broken, so why no rear brakes? Oops, look at that- the adjuster arm was bent, right where it meets the adjusting wheel. So I straightened it out with pliers (didn't feel like buying a new one)! And just as I was putting the drums back on, it started to rain. I put the wheels back on, and drove into the garage; I'll adjust the rear brakes and form a new rear driver's side brake line this weekend.

So, I started to look for the cause of my "low to high to low to high idle when cold" problem. The Splitfires wore a bit more on the center electrode; I replaced them with an old set that was almost perfect. I reinstalled 'em, and removed the distributor cap. I take it off- and what's that in the center of the rotor's top? The terminal from the center of the cap!! The inside top of the rotor is BLACK. The terminals inside the cap have an odd carbon tracking pattern above them, too. I'd heard of the center terminal burning with an MSD box, but wow, it was interesting to actually see it. The rotor was also about 1/16" shorter than the one I put on, from a junkyard distributor. I pulled the cap off all the way, and tried to remove the coil wire from the cap- SNAP! I had to remove the cap's terminal from the plug wire by using pliers.

And yeah, haha, it figures that I always threw out my old Accel caps. Who would've figured a cap could break that badly? Luckily I had a distributor laying around from a MPFI 2.8 f-body, I salvaged it's cap. Bummer; I put this GM cap on because of all the carbon tracking I was seeing on the inside of the Accel cap's terminals. Looks like I need to stick with the Accel cap/rotor kits now. I think I'll email MSD and see what they say. Maybe I'll make them produce a cap for us!

I actually bought one of those cheap digital cameras, the little "pen cam 3-in-1" deal, for $40 today. I'll see if I can get some snapshots up on the web.

The car is still hunting wildly at idle, and I've gotten a code 44 since replacing the cap. Code 44 = Lean. I think I have an exhaust leak by the manifolds, since the car seems to be really loud lately, and the fumes are strong as hell inside the car! Hopefully I'll have enough time to myself to get this fixed on Saturday.

 

Reminds me of the post on my coil that went bad about a month ago .You remember my "thirdgen post" about looking for a coil Im sure Tom . Well before I took my stock gm coil off , i put my thumb on the end of the post to see if it would break off easy b/c I already knew it was cracked and could break off easy , with little effort , it broke off easy !

I REALLY need to get my new rotor put on , just have not had the time lately and when I do I dont feel like messing with it , when i took off from school tues it missed a little ,I KNOW ITS THAT ROTOR thats almost crapped out !

Cool , Tom has his pic in his avatur .Now all he needs to do sence he types so much is get him one of those Voice recogniton systems .Then we can just hit play and listen and watch your mouth move in the pic !

 

Man that cap story is crazy. Luckly you had some old parts around. If I were in that situation Iwould be making a 20 minute plus run and draining my wallet.

Now with this camera lets see some pictures of your car

 

worst experiance I've had with a distributor was in my 77 T/A. TH erotor broke in 2, cracked right across where it bolts down. talk about sudden engine failure

I've heard about drilling holes in the cap to help reduce the ionizatio in the cap to help reduce the carbon tracking, but we allready have those little screen son the bottom. Heard anything on this?

 

The parts we install are Bakelite plastic, which can break.
Plastic cap mold can go bad, too!
I think MSD should pay for a new cap & rotor.
I'm still using my Accel cap and rotor I swapped back in 1999 and reused/cleaned up for the 3.4 swap.
Haven't touched it since last summer.
I am a real big fan of Accel stuff for over 20 years.
It does last a long time for the investment.
And give about the best performance gains I could expect.

 

I decided to copy Overclk350's image... I might go to a non-photo one, though, when the novelty wears off. And yeah, I'll definately be able to get some pictures up of the car faster now.. especially stuff like this distributor cap. Too bad I left the camera at work, and forgot to bring the cap in this morning. I'll get some tomorrow. And hehe, that'd be funny.. seeing/hearing me talk... I was watching myself forever when I put this cam on. Kinda fun.

Yeah, I never had an Accel cap go bad, even before the MSD box (when I just had the Accel coil), but it always annoyed me that there'd be tons of carbon tracking on the cap. That's why I went to a GM one, to see if it'd be any better. Guess I gotta stick with Accel. I hear some of those other companies make a stock replacement cap/rotor kit with brass terminals (isn't there a red cap by Wells?). Interesting idea, KED, on trying to get MSD to pay for it! I wonder what they'll say?

My MSD booklet actually mentioned drilling holes in the cap... but it didn't say where. It said that it'd keep the air inside the cap from becoming electrically charged, which creates the deposits. Maybe MSD will recommend that.

And Project85, wow, the rotor cracked in half? Damn! I think I've gotta keep a spare rotor in the car now. I was amazed at the potency of this MSD box- to keep the car running, even though there was no more direct connection between the coil terminal on the outside of the cap and the rotor. I wonder what that would've looked like thru one of those clear distributor caps!

 

Conrad makes the red cap/rotor kit w/the brass terminals. I know AZ sells em

 

Guess I better start carrying an extra cap and rotor now, along with the spare module, tools, etc. Anybody happen to have the part # for the accel cap/rotor handy? I'll have to check out that hole drilling trick too.

I wanna figure out how to insert a pic into my signature.

 

The cap/rotor kit is 8133... I remember that one. I could've had, what, like, 6 spares by now? Darn.

You go to the "user cp", and under "options", you can change the avatar.. at the bottom of the screen, FIRST, browse to your computer's hard drive to load the pic, and THEN, say "yes" to a custom one.

If you do that in reverse ("normal thinking") order, by saying "yes" to custom, and then choosing your pic, your default becomes the first picture, which is a yellow bear with a blue hat. I guess it's a bug, but a minor one.

 

Tom...
Having worked in PR....
You say to them that this damage happened.
Get them to confirm that it's products fault.
You want new parts or cash refund, please.
Tell them you're using old parts that are holding up BETTER then their stuff!
Mention to them about your friends hearing about this incident with their product.
Your Friends were "rather surprised and thought twice about their product".
Find the 800# and call them. Speak with Head Tech person.
You'll get new parts..
I mean, why should you have to-
Put out your labor for their faulty parts, three times, now.
Have to be stranded for the dollars you gave them for their products. Nice Return on Investment, isn't it?

 

Three times? It's only this one cap that's... oh, wait, you mean to say it's been three times.

 

Your personal labor has been "three times" installing (parts to eventually break), removing (broken parts)/installing (worn out parts to function), removing (removing worn out parts for the "new replacement/warranty" parts).
In other words, this simple, buy good product, close hood, go, Tune up project, turned into a real nightmare for you.
You want some customer satisfaction out of this ordeal!
You'll be getting new parts in the mail!