Hey Board-

So my car fails on me a few days back. I get into it and start tracking through the decision trees in the service manual. No spark at plugs, no spark at coil, ignition module getting 12+ volts as expected on ignition, I went to unhook the pickup coil connections and the wiring from the ignition modules on almost every plug basically disintegrated. It looks like I am in for at least a $140 distributor. Looking at my records, it appears to be the original distributor. Thats 147K miles and 25 years folks. I would call that pretty solid performance from a component in a vehicle that many people once termed "disposable". I will replace this part, then resume the trouble shooting. Gonna do cap and rotor and possibly coil if I need to. I am finally gonna get this electrical gremlin.

My question is, does the distributor assembly come with the pigtails (leads) to connect to the coil and the wiring harness? I guess I will find out when I get it but thought I would ask.

After adding up the potential cost of replacement parts, it looks like my first stop is parts galore tomorrow AM. Paying for all new parts, this appears to have the potential to snowball into the $500 range.

I would much rather buy powder cote services

paul is the 1.8 and 2.0 the same dist?


watch for flying sparks!!!

boostNbags-

I don't know about that. I asked at one of the parts places and they are saying that this is an 84 only setup. I am not sure I buy that. The 1.8 turbo was in use until 86.

I am sure the 2.0 stuff is all I will find when I go to parts galore though. Keeping this car running has been an experiment in what will interchange...

I will ask motorman...

Good News.

I found an 86 Sunbird GT at Parts Galore. $20 later I have what appears to be a distributor that is only a few years old. The wiring is close, but the coil has moved closer to the distributor on newer cars. I spliced the wires together - they almost match color for color.

In short, the car is running. I will be road testing tomorrow. Don't know if this is the only problem, but it is a good start.