What does this mean?

[georgeramos]

I called the PO today to ask if he'd found any more spare parts and he told me the following...

the car was "crapping out" and it turned out the distributor bushing was shot so the "centrifugal force" was causing the pint gap to increase. He said he made the gap smaller so the force would create the "proper" gap. Does that make any sense? The car is running well so i am afraid to change anything but this sounds really odd to me.

any help appreciated...

a quick google inquiry led to info about the distributor shaft bearings but nothing about bushings so i will assume thats what he meant. With that in mind does any of the other stuff make sense and would the solution be to buy the bearing and regap the points?

thanks

George

[ORFORD2004]

The lobe on the distributor that open the points was farther than original and he correct the gap by reduce it. So yes if you want to gap back to original you need to eliminate the play in the shaft.

[kmead]

The terms bushings and bearings can be incorrectly transposed but many will do so anyway. The distributor has bushings which can wear, thus the previous owner was compensating for the wear in the bushings by changing the gap of the points to a non standard size.

To fix this one can replace the bushings, replace the distributor with a similar one or change to one of several different distributors that are electronic. You can also replace the points with an optical solution that will be more tolerant of the variation in the bushings. Mark Allison sells a very good distributor substitute. The later cars came with an electronic distributor which can be easily put in place of your worn distributor.

In the short term as long as the car continues to run properly you don't really need to do much of anything. The previous owner could also be a total moron and full of crap and there may be nothing wrong with the distributor, though he could very well be correct. As you get more experience with the car you will be able to tell which he was.

Welcome and good luck. You are in a great area as there are 45 or so other registered classic Fiat owners in your area who are part of the FLU organization in Detroit (FLUID).

Karl

[majicwrench]

Does it run fine?? If so don't worry about it. Lots of distributors have play in the bushing/bearing.
Keith

[georgeramos]

it does run fine so i wont worry about it...yet.

Thanks all

G

[124JOE]

my 78 had duel points from factory
when i got it it had one set
i ran it for years untill i got ele ING
it has a led and pickup

under the plate that the points mount on
there is two springs
mine were shot
at the store they sell a GM curve kit it has three sets of springs
i used the smallest set
hope this helps