Lazy man's distributor overhaul (TEC distributor)

[DBMaster]

I got this info from LX-incredible. He had previously located the parts to do his own rebuild.

$7.16 F2100-65416 NOK Distributor Seal (DriveWire.com)
$5.39 6201-ZZ-12 12.50mm x OD: 32mm x W: 10mm (BearingsDirect.com)

Thanks again, LX-i!

[G. White]

This is a great thread. Just got done doing this one and even though my dizzy was in pretty good shape the grease/lube that comes from the factory over time turns into a sticky tar like substance.
A couple of things I discovered was......taking it out of the car and working on it was pretty easy. I ended up taking off the plate with the plastic ring ( I think its in one of the pics) anyways there is a set of tiny ball bearings that go around the perimeter of that rings that I lubed. And the reluctor is a lot easier to remove if pried from two sides simultaneously...it pops right off. I used this opportunity afterwards to check my timing and found that my timing had been so far off that I had to look up into the timing hole to find the mark.
My tach doesn't bounce anymore on startup and hopefully stays that way.

[LX-incredible]

I got this info from LX-incredible. He had previously located the parts to do his own rebuild.

$7.16 F2100-65416 NOK Distributor Seal (DriveWire.com)
$5.39 6201-ZZ-12 12.50mm x OD: 32mm x W: 10mm (BearingsDirect.com)

Thanks again, LX-i!

No problem.

Bearingsdirect doesn't seem to sell this size anymore and I can't find any other suppliers
6201-2RS-1/2 is the next closest, would be 12.7 mm ID. Should be fine as the 12.5 mm I used had to be pressed on, while the stock usually come off by hand.
http://cgi.ebay.com/6201-2RS-1-2-Bal...QQcmdZViewItem

[Kabuki]

I somehow missed this one. The bearing should be available from any bearing supply house. If memory serves, it's just a standard sealed cartridge.

I've been to three places in my own town. They aren't a standard size.

Somewhat off-topic: does anyone know how to test those ICMs? I've been looking all over for some kind of diagnostic, but can't find anything. It's an expensive part, so I'd really like to be sure it's bad when I finally have to buy one.

Offhand, I don't know how. But I do know that the procedure is outlined in the factory service manual.

[Dr_Snooz]

I
Offhand, I don't know how. But I do know that the procedure is outlined in the factory service manual.

Uh huh. I'll give you a dollar if you can find it.

[AZmike]

I found a place that carries the 12.5x32x10 bearing. Unfortunately since it's an unusual size it's $22.

Hi Mike,

Thank you for your inquiry. We do have this bearing in stock. Nachi brand, 6201/012-2NSL. This is a special series bearing due to the odd 12.5mm bore. Cost $22.00 each.
To save you shipping cost over UPS, we can ship via the US Postal Service for $2.00.

Best Regards,

Charlie Rowlett
CBR Bearing Co.
(800) 769-5388
(760) 731-7207
[email protected]

[Oldblueaccord]

6201 sounds like a pretty common size. I think we had this hashed out before but w2 never posted back anything on it.

[Oldblueaccord]

https://www.3geez.com/forum/3geez-ac...rmarket-2.html

holy long searches.......


gets informational around the #30 posts.

[AZmike]

6201 sounds like a pretty common size. I think we had this hashed out before but w2 never posted back anything on it.


wp

It's common with 12 mm, 12.7 mm and 0.500" ID, not 12.5 mm.

[MessyHonda]

Wait... Why would you move the igniter outside?

i thought it was the reason my car was acting up after i put in my msd box

[rfiks]

i just priced distibutors at checker-kragen: tech $24 and hitachi $37. what part costs 4-$600

[G. White]

I went on the junkyard crawl today and looked under the hood of one of the twenty some-odd three geez that they have and found a dizzy that looked fairly new.
I yanked it and turned it over to see a reman stamp on the bottom.
From there I proceeded to strip the ever living hell out of the thing including pulling the bearing and bushing.
The bearing has a part number of 6201 lu
A simple roller bearing with many applications---motorcycles, mopeds, fords, ect. Should be easy to find.

[Dr_Snooz]

i just priced distibutors at checker-kragen: tech $24 and hitachi $37. what part costs 4-$600

Twenty-four dollars will buy you a cap, not a distributor. Anyway, I don't buy parts from Kragen anymore since one of their alternators left me stranded in the middle of nowhere.

[cygnus x-1]

I went on the junkyard crawl today and looked under the hood of one of the twenty some-odd three geez that they have and found a dizzy that looked fairly new.
I yanked it and turned it over to see a reman stamp on the bottom.
From there I proceeded to strip the ever living hell out of the thing including pulling the bearing and bushing.
The bearing has a part number of 6201 lu
A simple roller bearing with many applications---motorcycles, mopeds, fords, ect. Should be easy to find.

It's a simple roller bearing but it's a very uncommon size. 6201 is usually 12mm ID by 32mm OD. But this one has a special bore so it's 12.5mm ID. It's bizarre and I didn't quite believe it, so I disassembled my old dizzy. Sure enough, 12.5mm ID. And it is NOT 0.500". If we were in Asia it would be much easier to get since they have much more available in metric parts.

C|

[rfiks]

Twenty-four dollars will buy you a cap, not a distributor. Anyway, I don't buy parts from Kragen anymore since one of their alternators left me stranded in the middle of nowhere.

the price was 4 both cap & rotor- if i dont buy fom kragen where else can i go???

[Vanilla Sky]

We're talking about a distributor, not a cap and rotor. A distributor is $246.99 with a $75 core through Advance.

[G. White]

It's a simple roller bearing but it's a very uncommon size. 6201 is usually 12mm ID by 32mm OD. But this one has a special bore so it's 12.5mm ID. It's bizarre and I didn't quite believe it, so I disassembled my old dizzy. Sure enough, 12.5mm ID. And it is NOT 0.500". If we were in Asia it would be much easier to get since they have much more available in metric parts.

C|

Ahhhhh, I see what you are saying......I wonder where cardone, beck arnley, ect get theirs from?

Wanna take a field trip to taiwan?

[DBMaster]

The one that came in my rebuilt unit and the original distributor from the car were ball bearings not rollers. In this application I am not sure that it makes much difference. If it's easy to find a 12mm bore and really hard to find a 12.5mm bore why not just machine the shaft or the inside of the bearing a bit? From what I saw of my original bearing it could probably have been salvaged with a good solvent cleaning and regreasing. Maybe the "lazy man's" way of doing it is better than buying a rebuilt. My opinion is leaning that way.

[Vanilla Sky]

Maybe the "lazy man's" way of doing it is better than buying a rebuilt. My opinion is leaning that way.

I agree. Most of the parts work fine in these distributors. A good cleaning and lube and they're good for a while longer. Tearing one down completely and cleaning everything then lubing it and reassembling it would more than likely yield a nearly new distributor.

[Dr_Snooz]

the price was 4 both cap & rotor- if i dont buy fom kragen where else can i go???

Napa's good.

[cygnus x-1]

The one that came in my rebuilt unit and the original distributor from the car were ball bearings not rollers. In this application I am not sure that it makes much difference. If it's easy to find a 12mm bore and really hard to find a 12.5mm bore why not just machine the shaft or the inside of the bearing a bit? From what I saw of my original bearing it could probably have been salvaged with a good solvent cleaning and regreasing. Maybe the "lazy man's" way of doing it is better than buying a rebuilt. My opinion is leaning that way.

Technically that's true. It is a ball bearing and not a roller bearing. But it's still a crazy size.

Machining down the shaft occurred to me as well but then you would have to change the bushing as well. And there is a seal between the bearing and bushing that probably wouldn't seal as well on the now smaller shaft. As long as the bearing doesn't have any play in it you can pry the seals off and clean/regrease. But if it's sloppy there isn't anything you can do.

C|

[DBMaster]

The shaft has varying diameters from the bottom to top so you can machine only the "lobe" that goes through the bearing, but if I had known how good the bearing was going to look (even dry) I would have just rebuilt mine instead of ordering a rebuilt in the first place. I think my bushing was actually fine because it gets oiled by the engine so I would have had to replace the seal and do a clean & lube. Maybe I would have fixed the weight shafts as well, but my original plastic bushings were still mostly intact.

[rfiks]

We're talking about a distributor, not a cap and rotor. A distributor is $246.99 with a $75 core through Advance.

i thought a cap and rotor = a distributor... im a noob(deedeeedeeee)

[evil88accordLX]

It's a simple roller bearing but it's a very uncommon size. 6201 is usually 12mm ID by 32mm OD. But this one has a special bore so it's 12.5mm ID. It's bizarre and I didn't quite believe it, so I disassembled my old dizzy. Sure enough, 12.5mm ID. And it is NOT 0.500". If we were in Asia it would be much easier to get since they have much more available in metric parts.

C|

25.4mm in one inch. that would make the ID 0.4921245"

[ecogabriel]

Good!

I had done sort of same with mine; the bastard was leaking oil so the disassemble went all the way down to the shaft seal where the crank sensors are. Oil was everywhere so I wanted to get rid of the leaks

Yes, it is quite a bit of work, and you need to be very careful on how the thing is assembled BEFORE disassembling so it can be put back together again in the proper order -otherwise I doubt it will work again. But it is worth it; it does not leak anymore and in addition it works smooth now.

I got the seal from some online shop that carries Honda stuff (I do not recall the name) ; it is not that hard to get but expensive because it is not a standard size.
The bearing is a problem though; 6201 is a standard size in theory (32 mm outer diameter) but the inner diameter is NOT standard; standard inner dia. are 12mm, 1/2" (12.7 mm), and 13 mm can be found also.
The Nachi 6201 012nsl (the code on my bearing) is special size; outer dia. is the standard 32 mm but inner dia. is 12.5mm.

If yours is not that bad (mine was turning a little rough and some red dust was present) you may try to re-pack the thing with grease. The bearing seals were a little broken (they're plastic or rubber, the so-called sealed bearings) so it was not hard to push good high-temp grease in (I used Durablend grease that is supposedly high-temperature). I used the same grease to lube all the other moving parts in the distr. and got silicone grease for the ICM from Radioshack (3 bucks tops)). you do not need a ton of sil. grease as its function is ensuring ICM's proper heat dissipation via the distributor body acting as a big "heatsink". Just a thin layer spreaded evenly over the ICM's surface

The think works without a problem so far, and using hi-temp grease should give more time between services as grease would stay longer. The old boys need a little extra attention to continue giving faithful service and keeping the big $$$ in our pockets