When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Wow those are very helpful pics of the engine block. I'll play around with the hold-down bracket and bolt and see if I can get it to stop wobbling. Hopefully I get some time after work today. Now that I have the truck at home I'm not restricted to working on it once a week or every other week.
No idea about the vacuum line right? I'm trying to order it but can't see the exact replacement and don't really know what to search for. If not, I'll try to make the existing hose work by putting some shrink tubing around the cracked part. Let's see if that keeps it in place.
I re-positioned the distributor back to its original orientation and it fired right up. I'm guessing all I had to replace from the beginning was the ignition coil. At least I got an ignition tune-up out of it and all it cost me was $68 in parts and my sanity for 3 months. Still worth it I'd say. No better feeling than fixing something yourself, small or big. And I'll take this as invaluable learning experience.
But...I'm not sure if I fixed the distributor into place properly. I'm seeing some wobble to it when the truck is running. I tightened the bolt as much as I could. Really hard to reach back there and not much room to get torque. Is some amount of play normal? Is it ok if I leave it like this or should I try to re-seat the little plate that holds it down? I wish I could upload a video I took but I'm only able to attach images.
Another thing is while I was working on the distributor cap and rotor back in January I took off the entire throttle body to clean it, most specifically the IAC valve as I was having idling issues. While taking off the throttle body I accidentally snapped off the vacuum line that attaches in the front next to the MAP sensor. Anyone know what this line is for? Tried to do a search but didn't get a clear answer.
Thats a vacuum that goes to the EGR valve that's on the right side if looking at the engine towards the rear of engine just before the distributor
