Tag: distributor

Fire walk with me – again

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Aw fuck.

Oil leaked thru distributor axle seal and started a small fire. Car still runs, but its not charging and there seems to be some kind of relay problem. Most likely my alternator, sprayed with oil from above, is the source of the fire.

I have to go and rummage through my spare parts pile to check if I had a second alternator. I do have a spare distributor, but it needs to be welded.

Below: wiring damage to the distributor wires

Rotor and seal below – very oily. Notice – the damage on the distributor cap is not on the exhaust manifold side. The heat shield has been working perfectly.

Oil inside distributor cap – no fire marks inside.

This will definetly buff out

My Ultra plug wires which I got by accident that really are not for 4A-GZE – also toasted 🙁

Easy fix for this would be a bit wider heat shield that would also work as a oil catcher – directing that leaking oil past the alternator and the hot bits.

Distributor adventure

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Just change the distributor cap to fix it. Easy?

No.

There was a drop of oil under the car every now and then, which was dripping from the AC compressor (definetly not from the compressor itself). Couldn’t find the source, but then reading an article about the 4A distributor and the distributor seals, I wondered if this was a good time to do a overhaul.

Cap was old and used and so was the rotating bit so nothing spectacular there. Just needed to buy new parts.

I took the whole distributor off the engine and inspected it on the floor.

dist_fix

All the seals were either hardened or destroyed, so I needed to get some new stuff. I went to see the guys at the local shop for such things. I got some Viton seals for longevity.

dist_fix3dist_fix2

I cleaned the whole thing inside out as well as I could. There was some oil inside, but nothing serious. I read the installation instructions from the manual and started slowly to tighten the bolts. I had the first bolt tightened with fingers and used my 1/4″ ratchet to get the second one slightly more tight. There was almost no resistance when *tink*

And this happened:

dist_fix6  dist_fix4

Luckily, I had a second distributor on my spare engine, which got the same treatment. New seals, cleaning inside and swapped the new cap.

The seals did the trick. No more oil dripping off the AC compressor.