alright, i'm in the process of swapping out my pick up coil, i've removed the distributor, and removed the old pu coil. The thing is, after removing the old one, and sitting the new one in place, i'm having trouble with the locking ring, it's got a lock washer that sits ontop of the pu coil, but there's a problem with getting the snap ring thingie to go ontop of that, is there any other way to get it on besides pushing and pushing...thanks in advance, hopefully we can figure this out so i can get this damn car out of the hanger tonight, and hopefully it'll finally be working.

 

I;ll wait for KED85 to answer this. I replaced that on my origonal distributor, and it didn't quite go back together the way it should have. the reluctor ring (or what ever it's caled that you have to remove to change p/u coil) well, it's supposed to stay put in the groves of teh shaft. it didn't, & was spinning freely. Kinda makes timing/rnning car hard. $50 replacemetn distributor works much better.

 

Do you have the right snap? My pickup coil came with two, one that didn't look like my original, and one that did. Otherwise, just keep pushing! Tip; use the open end of an appropriate size socket to help you push. Stand the dist housing upright on the work bench, put the socket over the clip, and push down Hard. Good luck!

 

yeh tom, the one i had came with two locks, one that was essentially a huge lock washer (mine had a washer, but no lock washer and then a funny looking square thing with a hole in the middle of it (which mind did have) so i squeezed and pryed, and squeezed, and eventually it seemed to fit down like it should have. But my timing was apparently off, the car ran like crap, would only get to 40 mph, etc. Took car to shop to have timing set, they said my plug wires are bad and they think the pu coil is bad too, but they're not sure, he said he wasn't able to set the timing cause it was jumping around so much....like what the hell.

 

How was the distributor end play? Also, you did remember to pop the roll pin back into the gear, right?

Did you happen to break the plate that the cap and ICM sits on loose? It's a press fit, and if it's all sloppy, that'll cause bad timing jump.

How about the timing chain? What kind of condition is it in?

 

well dow here's the deal.

Yes, i did put the roll pin back in...woulda been like ? how's all this stuff staying together? if i hadn't....

The plate that the ICM and cap mounts to is directly tied into the distributor housing (the shorter{yet larger diameter} round tubing) and no, i'm pretty damn sure i never broke that loose, reasons

1. i never used it as a thrust surface, used a soft vice for the pin removal, instaltion it was simply sitting on the table, but still wasnt being a hit

2. after tightening down the hold down bolt, and having the cap connected to the base, i tried to twist the cap to no avail, yet this would be possible if the housing was loose.

It might be a matter of the timing chain going bad, but i thought i would have noticed that by now, kinda odd i guess, but at the same time the motor was new as of 3 years ago, and has accululated 50,000 miles, a good portion of them highway from driving to school and home occasionally, and to my girlfriends in kansas city, so 200 mile one way trips along with 60 mile one way trips, and every trip is two ways. so, eh, don't think that's the prob, shoulda noticed it by now...thinking that damn PUcoil may still be bad, or, the ICM might be bad...there's also the chance that the distributor is actually just eh, shot, but i doubt that. it's probably timing, wiring, and the pu coil or ICM or both together.

 

STRONG possibility of the ICm.. You didn't replace that while in there? Replace that, the cap/rotor, and you've got a new distributor.

You had yours apart - you see what it is. There's nothing in it, lol!

 

yeh, if i get all those changed out, the only old ignition componet should be that lil' magnetic star thingie. lets see, cap, rotor, coil, pu coil, plugs, and now i need wires , new pu coil, and ignition control module. reason i didn't replace it while in there, was, i was and am .... on a major budget crunch. LOL, not getting paid till i'm at home on the 20th.