404 distributor

rlo · Feb 22, 2013

She"s been hard starting & missing (winter in MI) so I took off the dist cap and the coil nodule on the cap was worn flat. Put on new cap & rotor now fires worse (less) that before. Rotor spinning & coil sparking. No spark to plugs. Didn"t put the new points in because the breaker cover is on there pretty good. How does it come off before I break it? Also there is no #1 marked on the replacement cap, but I placed it per the old cap oriented to the clip indent. Does it matter as long as the wires are in the correct order on the cap? Thanks as always for your kind advice. RLO

pete 23 · Feb 22, 2013

If you are not getting spark to plugs, but getting spark from the coil wire the points are not your problem. It is in the cap and or rotor. If the plug wires are on wrong it may not run but it will still spark at the plugs. The wires can and may have been put on in different orientation as a battery ign unit can be put on any way and timed accordingly. Pull number one spark plug, turn engine by hand until you feel compression on number on cyl, turn until piston is at top or align tdc mark if you can find it, and then install plug wires to align with rotor. Firing order is l 3 4 2 looking at the cap from the rear, side wires plug in they go clockwise. The cover over points can stick bad. Have to get ahold of the two ears and try. Even if you do break it they will run fine until you can find another one.

rlo · Feb 22, 2013

I'm obvioulsy pretty green at this. To be clear with the coil wire disconnected at the cap I get spark when held by the frame. So the trick is to align the #1 wire to the rotor when it's TDC for #1 cyl? Thanks for your patience.

RLO

CNKS · Feb 22, 2013

#1 terminal on the cap is the top right viewed from the rear, #1 cyl is next to the radiator, if you don't know. When at TDC the rotor has to point to the #1 terminal on the cap.

jk · Feb 23, 2013

Hey RLO
where abputs are you from? I"m 35 miles south west of Ann Arbor

rlo · Mar 4, 2013

Thanks for all the advice. Need some more! I realized the spark I was seeing was intermittent so I changed condenser & points after dong the same on cap, rotor & wires. In setting the point gap the shaft turned a few times and now the shaft has quit rotating. What"s my next step? I gather the gear is shot. So do I pull the whole distributor? What kind of challenge am I in for..considering I started out changing the cap?Thank you again.(JK - I'm from Deerfield originally- Lansing area now.)

404 distributor

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