replacing distributor.
#11
09-25-2020, 08:36 AM
Champion
Had the time and weather held today
The install was the easy part. Disconnect neg bat cable.
You have to remove the fan and belt to be able to rotate the motor using the balancer on the 3.9 to get to TDC. I suppose you could remove the shroud but if I remember correctly the fan has to come off for that anyway. Then remove the air cleaner and throttle body. Vac rubber hose broke and had a big crack it did not have when I did the MAP and IAC a few months ago. I used a silicon cap that was just over and inch long cut off the end and it fit perfect. Then remove plug wires and cap, disconnect cam sensor. Then loosen the hold down and remove it. If you can see and get in there now is when you would mark the shaft and motor. Not possible in mine. Too dirty and I could not get in there to do it. It cleaned up nice though and no signs of the plenum having failed back there.
When I removed it it was just as I remember the Bionic Dodge description of sync setting. I just put the new rotor on the new distributor and set it down in the slot. The body turned as I tried to tighten the hold down but the rotor stayed put as it is connected to that slot so I could just rotate the body back to the right position. I got it snug, put everything but the air cleaner back together, hooked up the MT2500 and started it.
Went to set sync and it was still jumpy as hell. lost of 24's + and - I eventually got it to hit 2 and 3 then jump to 15 and back to 3. And it just cycled that way so I left it. I tightened down the hold down bolt and took a drive. It felt tighter. It didn't drop in to OD too soon and felt stronger, not as much feeling like it was pouring gas through that wasn't burning. In fact as I write I realize there wasn't that exhaust smell of unburnt fuel in my driveway. I went and filled up hoping for better MPG's. 15.07mpg this fillup, up rom 14.5 last time.
The install was the easy part. Disconnect neg bat cable.
You have to remove the fan and belt to be able to rotate the motor using the balancer on the 3.9 to get to TDC. I suppose you could remove the shroud but if I remember correctly the fan has to come off for that anyway. Then remove the air cleaner and throttle body. Vac rubber hose broke and had a big crack it did not have when I did the MAP and IAC a few months ago. I used a silicon cap that was just over and inch long cut off the end and it fit perfect. Then remove plug wires and cap, disconnect cam sensor. Then loosen the hold down and remove it. If you can see and get in there now is when you would mark the shaft and motor. Not possible in mine. Too dirty and I could not get in there to do it. It cleaned up nice though and no signs of the plenum having failed back there.
When I removed it it was just as I remember the Bionic Dodge description of sync setting. I just put the new rotor on the new distributor and set it down in the slot. The body turned as I tried to tighten the hold down but the rotor stayed put as it is connected to that slot so I could just rotate the body back to the right position. I got it snug, put everything but the air cleaner back together, hooked up the MT2500 and started it.
Went to set sync and it was still jumpy as hell. lost of 24's + and - I eventually got it to hit 2 and 3 then jump to 15 and back to 3. And it just cycled that way so I left it. I tightened down the hold down bolt and took a drive. It felt tighter. It didn't drop in to OD too soon and felt stronger, not as much feeling like it was pouring gas through that wasn't burning. In fact as I write I realize there wasn't that exhaust smell of unburnt fuel in my driveway. I went and filled up hoping for better MPG's. 15.07mpg this fillup, up rom 14.5 last time.
If you ever need to do it again, you don't have to rotate the engine. Granted, it makes it more fool proof, but you can just use a sharpie or other marker, BUT NOT A PENCIL, to mark your rotor position and just put the new unit in the same same way. Mark the new one the same and align it. Sorry about the all caps shouting, but pencils are made of graphite and WILL cause arcing inside which will cause misfires. When I ran a shop, I kept getting cars with pencil markings inside the cap. I got to just cleaning them. One shady shop kept doing that for return business.
#12
09-25-2020, 09:03 AM
#13
09-25-2020, 09:05 AM
Champion
The following 2 users liked this post by RalphP:
onemore94dak (09-25-2020),
tndakman (09-25-2020)
#14
09-28-2020, 03:51 PM
Champion
I think over the last 50+ years, I've replaced one coil and maybe 2 coil packs due to failure. Usually I've replaced them for a hotter spark. They fail so rarely when they do, you end up chasing all sorts of other problems. I like to keep an extra to swap in just in case but it's usually not been the case and I swapped them back out.
#15
09-28-2020, 06:38 PM