Need help with distributor

[steve520]

Yes back with a problem. I've went through all my problems i think i've narrowed this down to the electrical. I opened the distributor up and found it with reddish dust a sign of a bad bearing from what i've read. My car has been acting awful lately. When get up to around 50 mph my idle will all of a sudden drop like it lost power then when I give it gas it will pick up again. I have a feeling eventually it will die in the middle of the highway leaving me stranded. I have a hunch its the distributor. Was going to follow Snoozes lazy distributor overhaul when I was thinking that this could possibly be a timing problem. I have no timing light so if I remove the distributor I and clean it out form what snoozes thread said you need to reset the timing. So i'm in a predicament. I know a local junkyard has an 89 lxi like mine but would it have the same dizzy? Also is there a way to do this overhaul and not reset timing? Please help 3geezers once again i'm going crazy.

[Oldblueaccord]

Well the timing is not that big of a deal. Just mark the distributor housing where is is now so when you do take it out and out it back in your will be fine. After that you can move it around to suit. idle goes higher is more advance lower is less.

The bearing itself, you see red dust just under the rotor area, its usually the advance bearing. it has like a yellow plastic shell around and you can see the bearings in it. it can be cleaned up and lube with a light lube like teflon spray.

The distributor bearing itself, that the whole rotor shaft is riding on, is way inside the housing. When its bad you will get a lot of rotor play or the pickup will hit the reluctor when it spins.

Give it a good look over get that junkyard one to as a backup.

[steve520]

Oldblue you have no clue how much help you just gave me thanks so much. I'm going to take it out and lube it up like you said and mark. I think the timing is still a bit off it must be a bit retarded because my idle is lower than it should be while i'm driving. I might advance it a bit just to see where im at. I seen in the manual on how to advance it. Most of the red dust I had was sitting under the rotor. So i assume it was mostly from the advance bearing. I feel confident i'm going to take mine apart and put it back i'll let you know how everything goes!

[steve520]

Hopefully someone who did this tutorial can help me although snoozes tutorial is great theres just a few things im not sure to remove here. I'm more of a visiual learner than and just reading so hopefully someone can help me out with this. I'm wondering what to remove from here on out I got the vacuum off. I didn't want to remove something that would mess the thing up. Is it just the two screws on the bottom then pry?

[Oldblueaccord]

Oldblue you have no clue how much help you just gave me thanks so much. I'm going to take it out and lube it up like you said and mark. I think the timing is still a bit off it must be a bit retarded because my idle is lower than it should be while i'm driving. I might advance it a bit just to see where im at. I seen in the manual on how to advance it. Most of the red dust I had was sitting under the rotor. So i assume it was mostly from the advance bearing. I feel confident i'm going to take mine apart and put it back i'll let you know how everything goes!

If you do pull it out remember where the rotor points as well. the distributor should only go in one way.

Check your gap at the reluctor as well or for any damage there.



Look inside the cap at the post and see what they look like. You can clean them up for a quick fix as well with some sand paper or a dremel tool. Dont mess with the center post that touches the rotor it breaks easy.

The time you can "set by ear" redneck style. Just advance it until it pings when you drive and then back it off a notch. Better way is with a light of course.

[steve520]

Thanks for the advice on the gap looks good from what i can tell no chips or anything. As you can see I already got it out just trying to get to the mechanism so I can clean it up like Snooz's tutorial hopefully I can get the last two screws out so i can access it. Thanks for the help man.

[steve520]

Well got to the heart of it gonna lube it up nice in good with some grease etc.... like snooz's tut says. Also for the igniter I have some Artic Silver 5 thermal compound laying around from PCs I used to work on. Wondering if it will work just as well with the ICM.

[steve520]

Just got done putting it all back together started it up. And my god it sounds awful sounds like it coughed a lung up idle is jumping all over the place. What could it be now? Possibly rotor on backwards? or maybe the timing is way off?

[Oldblueaccord]

Just got done putting it all back together started it up. And my god it sounds awful sounds like it coughed a lung up idle is jumping all over the place. What could it be now? Possibly rotor on backwards? or maybe the timing is way off?

I think you posted that picture about the same time I post so I never saw sorry about that.

Only thing I can think of is the ignitor is not grounding well. It needs a very good ground to work correctly. Or one of those pins are not contacting good.

The timing might be off some but it would idle just fine where ever it landed. The distributor can only go in one way on Hondas as far as I know. Domestic it can be inserted 180 degrees out.

Inspect everything again inside and make sure the reluctor/stator is not hitting.

[Dr_Snooz]

Sounds like the wires are mixed up. Timing lights are $30 at Harbor Freight and a good investment if you have an older car. If you used the thermal compound, wipe it off and use silicone grease (AKA dielectric grease) instead. You can get it at any auto parts store and most hardware stores too. The silicone grease will conduct electricity where the thermal compound might not.

Richporter makes a good replacement distributor and may be a better way to go than fighting with an old and tired one.

Good luck.

[steve520]

Wires ended up being fine. The reluctor and stator were actually hitting each other which was causing such an issue. Ended up buying a used distributor from AZMike on here which I used and it worked good. Started up nice and fine ill let you guys know how it drives.