Re: distributor diagnosis

[Charles Slayman <Charles.Slayman@domain.elided>]

Doug,
	I would question your shop more thoroughly.  I don't know who they are 
or what their level of expertise is.  So I won't question their diagnosis.  But 
you should ask to be educated as to how they reached that conclusion.
	On a Bosch Spider (which your '84 Spider is), the distributor's sole 
function is to "Distribute" the spark to the right cylinder.  There are no 
points, advance mechanism or condensor.  So cap and rotor are the only 
replacement parts.  The Bosch spark box and trigger pin on the flywheel take 
care of generating and timing of the spark.
	Granted, the bushings might be worn and causing undue wobble in the 
shaft.  This will not cause a timing problem (as it would on a distributor 
triggered system), but it could break or prematurely wear the cap an rotor.
	The real question is "What is your problem?"  Is the engine running 
rough?  Misfire at high speed?  You need to tell us the problem.
	A quick an dirty check would be to put a strobe light on #1 cylinder and 
look at the timing is from idle up to high rpm.  Do you have a strobe light?  If 
not, get one.  They are essential to a shade tree mechanics toolbox and not that 
expensive.  
	Is the strobe stable or does it jump around or miss several beats?  Does 
it advance continuously from idle up to high rpm or does it jump around?  If you 
have problems, it could be something other than the distributor.
	
Hope this helps,
Charlie S
'89 Spider

	
>From: "Douglas Kunzman" <doug.kunzman@domain.elided>
>To: <alfa@domain.elided>
>Subject: distributor diagnosis
>Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 12:24:10 -0400
>MIME-Version: 1.0
>Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>
>Hi,
>
>I just got one of my alfa's back from the shop were they diagnosed the
>distributor being
>broken and worn out on one of my Alfa Spiders (1984 with 150,000 miles).  I
>was pretty sure
>that it was a ignition problem and had replaced the plugs, wires, cap and
>rotor to no avail.
>Is there anyway for an amateur to diagnose that the distributor is bad
>without very specialized
>tools ?
>
>Doug K
>2 84 Alfa Spiders
>1 Truck to move alfa engines
>
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