Sliced & Diced Distributor

[zulu]

Well...........heading for home in the wagon yesterday arvo, whats that BANG  2 HUGE backfires  a few POPS  I was in the middle lane of the m4 doing 90mph according to the speedo, but it's out.

Emergency lane change...pardon me please, pull over, have a look in there, dizzy looks a bit odd.. mmm



Looks like it's been sliced in half



Has anyone encountered this before ?



Now which spare dizzy to use Gary

[smithy]

  OUCH

you dont do things by halves.

good to see you made it safely through the traffic though.

[FC427]

Gary WTF I have seen many  strange failures even seen all the pistons in a red six all with holes in the top but that is an unusual one HOW DID YOU MANAGE THAT  .......FC427.....

[Geoff_K]

Gary,

Wow, looks like you had a rotary lawnmower in there.

Could you have done this better with a lathe?
Did some of the counterweights, springs etc come adrift, and spinning at high speed, neatly cut off the top.

Very tricky.

Geoff_K

[EffCee]

Hi Gary,

I have seen this happen before, it happens when either the springs in the distributor break or lose sufficient tension that the advance weights hit the side if the distributor body and continue to rub on the side of the housing until such time as they cut through the distributor, like yours has done. I have only seen it happen once to a Bosch distributor (red motor in a taxi) but have seen it happen quite a few times to Ducillier distributors on Renaults.

Is there any sign of corrosion in the distributor. In all cases that I have seen the has been signs of corrosion inside the distributor, prompting me to think that at some stage water has gotten into the distributor and started to rust the advance springs, which weakened by rust pitting, have broken.

The other thing is if the springs were the original ones they could have broken or lost their tension and came off from fatigue or crystallisation.

I hope that this helps, but what would help more is another distributor.

Keith
F4+
 

[zulu]

Yeah, thats what happened by the looks of things. One of the weights has un hitched itself and lodged under the plate where it lives.

One end was poking out & it appears this has somehow fairly neatly machined it's way through the housing.

There was quiet a bit of graphite powder like metal residue inside the dizzy, although no signs of corrosion.

I have a few spare units so I had better break out the good book and re build one of them, something I neglected to do the 1st time round.

Any tips appreciated.

Thanks, Gary

[FB_MAD]

Saw the exact same thing happen only a few months ago.

Phil Clancy's father's car did it on the way to the FB/EK Holden Nationals in Yamba in June long weekend.

Wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes

The cut was a fairly neat one and caused by the centrifugal weights springs breaking and the weights then slicing/wearing through the housing untill one housing became two

He said there was only a slight cough and fart from the motor here and there for a few miles and then it just gave up and died.

He's kept it for one of those talking point items or maybe for a perpetual "Hard Luck" trophy for upcoming Nationals.

[MalFE]

Hi Gary

Remember when I timed the engine recently, I mentioned to you the timing wasn't advancing when the engine was revved. Now we Know why. At the time we had more immediate problems and didn't pursue the advance issue.

Cheers

Mal

[zulu]

All sorted, went through my spares & found a dizzy with very little wear on the gear & tounge.

Pulled it all down, checked out the weights, springs, cleaned, painted & reassembled.

I just finished putting back in & taking it for a run, what a difference! no more farting (the car that is)
 
All this time I thought it must have been a fuel problem because of the twin Stromies.

I do recall that Mal, I should have changed it sooner.

Cheers, Gary