For those that live near the Lehigh Valley and want a good laugh tomorrow, come watch me try and fix the Hawk!

OK, I've 98% determined that I need to replace the pick-up coil, but now I find I have to (yeah) REMOVE the distributor on my 1.8 to accomplish this. I got the concept of marking things so as not to have my timing FUBAR, but for the little details--anything I should know? Anything gonna be especially frustrating because the friggin bolt won't turn, or will I be saying, "yeah, who has that tool?"

I'm thinking step 3 of "remove spring clip, if so equipped, attached to the distributor shaft and remove shaft from the distributor housing"--any issues there I should keep in mind?

or step 5 of "replace the old pickup with new making certain that the pickup arm is fully engaged with the vacuum advance shaft. Also connect lead wires to the module making certain the wires are placed clear of rotating parts" um...sure

even better is step 7--"replace distributor shaft in housing and rotate the check for any binding of timer core teeth with pickup assembly teeth at both no vacuum advance and full vacuum advance"--what?????? (will I understand this when I see it, I like to think I'm an intelligent guy)

step 10 says retime engine to spec if necessary, does the "if necessary" part only come in if I screw this up, or should I expect to have the need to set the timing?

I do have the old factory shop manuals to guide me as well.

You want screw the timing as or fubar as long as you do not start the car with it removed! As long as you marked the rotor button on #1 in relation to the distributor itself it should run maybe not great until u dial in back in to the specs like *6 bdc as mine but your may vary.I assume you replaced the ignitoin module? how are the coils? anyway I did not rebuild mine teeth looked good car runs.I had a hellava time getting my timing dialed in due to I repainted my entire engine! Can not be marking up my fresh paint.It took some patience and checking the #1 plug for tdc by hand and adjust the cap to get it close enuff to fire(I did and have reset it twice to get a nice rpm.I am not sure this is helping or confusing the crap out of things.And note I left the distrib out on my paint work there fore no marks had to do the old school way and by myself! I had a stiff back after it was done to say the least.Good luck.

" am not sure this is helping or confusing the crap out of things"

a little from column A, a little from column B

Basically, the car wanted to stall on me as I was driving it, but then power came back and I could hear nice afterfires out the exhaust. I found the more electrical load I had (lights, radio, etc.) the worse the problem would be, especially when taching near 3K.

Earlier this year I replaced cap/rotor, wires and plugs, and ignition module. So that leaves me betting on the coil pick-up.

Really this job sounds like an easy one and I just have to be careful not to put anything back together out of place from how I removed it, but being the real amateur that I am, I was just wondering if I would run into anything to drive me crazy. I can have little patience for things that are way more difficult than they should be--when there is a bolt to unscrew, I want to unscrew it without f**king around. This is why I had my exhaust done instead of me doing it myself--I knew rust would just piss me off when I had to deal with the clamps, etc.

Wayne-

Pls excuse my ignorance, but you are running a 1.8 OHC, right? Why not just swap in a complete distrubutor (ignition module and pick up assy)? This is pretty straight forward to do on the OHC, especially if you have done the ignition module before. Just do it and set the timing after using a light.

Just be patient - this one is not that bad

Paul I was going to throw that idea about replacing the whole unit!But figured I would leave my post as it was.I know if mines start going screwy I will be buying the whole unit(rebuilding is such a waste of time).But as it stands by coil is new,the ignition module same(kinda older) a year or so.ALright.

Yeah, I have the 1.8.

This seems easy, but easy never goes easy for me.

A friend of mine has experience with removing and marking distributors, so he will be over tomorrow (sunday) and we'll be doing the job.

Wayne-

Its always a party with these cars. Hope it goes well. I am doing the optispark on my Camaro over the course of the next few days, then hopefully getting back to my bird.

Still working the oil leak and neutral safety switch challenges. Then there is all the other stuff waiting in line: wheel bearing, rear shocks and rear sway bar hardware.

did you read before where I said easy is never easy for me?

Pulled off cap, removed rotor, disconnected other stuff according to the instructions, pulled out distributor--gee, this is easy!

OK, now how does one remove the pick-up coil? seems like a little ninja throwing star thingy is in the way, but there doesn't seem to be any way to remove it to get to the pick-up coil, and even if I did manage to remove it, it really doesn't look like the pick-up coil would come out anyway???

Also seems I didn't have to remove the distributor at all as the pick-up coil is between the rotor and module?

Oh well, put car back together and drove it to the garage for them to have all the fun

Props to me for not screwing anything up

Wayne-

Been there, done that.. I usually have to have my towed somwhere once I have had my way with it...

Seriously, I would grab one of the used distributors off eBay for like $30 and swap the whole thing. I may actually have to do that on mine soon.

Here I was soooooooo close...

Apparently the rolling pin I was looking for was hidden there and I couldn't find it.

The garage got the new coil pick-up in and put it back together, but the problem persists...they aren't sure what it is.

When I have heater/CD player/lights going and hit about 3K on the tach, the car acts as if there is a quick stall in power, then fires back up with a nice backfire. This year I replaced the cap/rotor/plugs/wires and now the pick-up coil--any other thoughts?

Wayne-

Does the car do this with lights off? I would start by looking at the input to the distributor. I have a cheap wire with a light that runs in line with a distributor or plug wire. I would look to see if the light is interrupted upstream of the distributor or downstream. This will at least help to isolate the problem. Is it only when the car is hot?

Just a random thought, does anything happen when you wiggle the coolant temp sensor wires while the car is running?

Yes, it has happened when the lights were off and the only thing on was the CD player. No high-end system or speakers, just a $100 CD player and some $5 yard sale speakers that were better sounding than the factory rears. They've both been in for a long time, so I'm not looking at that.

I did order a coil today (I only had the pick-up replaced), should have it tomorrow and will install it soon (any funky tools needed, or just basic sockets?).

It tachs at 3K at 45mph when going uphill and at 60mph when going straight.

It really seems to hate the turn signals most, I'm afraid to try in the rain with the wipers. I drove it home with the lights on tonight, but was careful about my speed to not tach it to 3K if at all possible and I didn't have a problem getting it home from the garage.

When this does happen, I just let off the gas and coast a bit, then continue on my way. It runs just fine at idle with any amount of electrical load on.

The only tools I used on mine was sockets with extensions.Mine bolts directly to the bottom of the intake.Kinda wierd but it is not too bad.MIne had like three bolts and not to hard to see since I painted the entire engine and NO greasy mess!!!!! I replaced my coil when I did the engine resto over two years ago.

got the coil, heavier than I thought it would be.

These instructions tell me I have to drill holes in the brackets where the coil is mounted by the factory????? REALLY???

This is the 1.8 OHC, looks like steps are disconnect battery, remove air cleaner, unplug coil, 3 bolts to remove coil inside bracket (this is where I hope not to have to drill anything)…

Anyone else do this and have to drill?

Wayne-

Completely normal to have to drill out for coil replacement. I just did it on my Camaro. I thought it was strange at the time too. My replacement MSAD coil came with little nuts and bolts to replace the drilled out rivets.

Wayne-

Just a random thought...

Do you have the original battery cables? I had a random cut out issue at one point that required cable replacement.

Paul--wouldn't surprise me, but thanx for suggesting it. Is there a way to test them? I have a feeling that isn't it, since the problem comes at 3K on the tach and with a big electric load, not to mention my battery is still getting full charge (according to the gauge). This doesn't appear random to me, I've narrowed down a pattern.

Yeah, I was trying to do it tonight, but I need bigger wrenches and/or deep socket (my largest box wrench is 15mm and 5/8.

Weird part is that now that I've seen the bracket and the rivets, I think the replacement I got (duralast from autozone) came with a new bracket and hardware so I won't have to drill. Maybe I'm seeing things wrong and I will still need to drill, but it would be nice if not.

Looks like a job for Saturday!

Yeah come to think of it I had to drill out those rivets.I think I either had hardware in the coil kit,or went to lowes and got some to fit.Btw I finally got my slide hammer set.It is posted in my thread decent pics.I should be getting closer to starting my project.Still need to buy a new horn and inspection first.

You know how I said "easy is never easy for me"?

Three trips to the store to get the tools I needed, and only to find that yeah, I need to drill.

I guess I wasn't really understanding how this works, but I have to drill out the rivets of the old bracket to get the old coil out. Then I get to use the shiny new hardware that came with the new coil to install.

Once I had the proper tools, it only took about 10 minutes to get out of the car. Soon I'll be going to a friend's house to drill out the rivets, so it looks like tomorrow this saga will be over (unless the problem lies elsewhere, like the alternator).

I really hope this does it, I miss the Hawk!

Hi, I'm not a 1st gen guy, but I am an electronics guy. Have you had your alternator and battery checked recently, and of course physically check your cables. You can also check them with a multimeter, set the meter to OHMS, and touch both ends (with the cable disconnected of course) You should be getting very little resistance, almost 0.

Yeah, those are fine, still don't know what's wrong with the car. For more on this, check out the thread "the saga continues". Glad you stepped into 1st Gen to help, here's hoping you have an idea.

Do you have a way to hook up a multimeter or a voltmeter to the car? I'm curious to see what happens to your voltage when this occurance happens. This may still be an electrical gremlin; coil packs shorting out will cause stall, and it seems like this only happens under an engine load. My other thought (reading the other thread) is if the vehicle would advance or retard timing, you're going to have a loss in power and the same amount of gas... backfire as well. Could be a funky cell in your battery, and this could potentially randomly cause this problem.

Here's what I'm thinking, won't cost a thing:

1 - load test on the battery at advanced/autozone/auto parts store - this would eliminate bad battery.
2 - get some soapy water, check for vacuum leaks around distributor (this has a vacuum advance, right?)

The electrical is fine, but the problem continues.

I'll try the soapy water trick around the distributor, I was also given another vacuum suggestion (something under the battery tray). Now if only it would stop snowing around here and the temperature get above maybe 25 degrees I could do this.

for more on this, check out "the saga continues" thread here as well, you'll be more up to date on what I've done.

I read the saga thread and I can toss out some possibilities - could be fuel pump starting to flake out, but a fuel pressure test would be able to verify proper pressures. Throttle position sensor was mentioned, and I have had that go bad on my car and do that, but it was at a specific spot in the throttle. As long as I was before or after that spot, everything was peachy. New sensor, fixed that problem. I also had a bad spark plug wire that would arc on the engine block and do exactly that as well (choke and want to stall), and throw codes for knock, cam and crank sensors. Lack of fuel, or too much fuel - have you ever run seafoam through your system? Vacuum pulling too much advance or too little advance would do this too, hence you're going to check your vacuum box under the bumper. This is one of those things you may have to throw some parts here and there to troubleshoot

Just from being with the car, I really have my doubts on the fuel pressure being the issue--not saying impossible, just saying unlikely. I never heard of Seafoam, but I only use "good" gas--nothing from the supermarkets or other cheap places where I can't trust the gas. When I got the car, I did get a bottle of Regaine and ran that with a tank full of high test Exxon to flush it out. The car really does run amazingly well, except for this little issue.