[xj-s] Distributor Rebuild

["Kirbert" <palmk@mailer.gadcomm.net>]

I rebuilt my distributor tonight.  Yes, I may come off as the expert 
on rebuilding distributors around here, but it may be of interest to 
note that the LAST time I rebuilt a distributor was also this one, it 
was in the late 80's, I hadn't owned an XJ-S for more than a 
coupla weeks, my book didn't exist, this list didn't exist, and I 
didn't even have a Haynes manual at the time.  Look at how far we've 
come!

Anyhow, to the report at hand.  The first thing that surprised me was 
that my distributor contained a perfectly intact "thingy".  I didn't 
remember it at all; in fact, the whole reason I was rebuilding is 
because I couldn't remember what I had replaced the thingy with.  I 
purchased a 5/16" ID, 1/2" OD bronze bushing today and had already 
sliced off a ring about .065" thick in preparation for the rebuild.

The second item of note: my thingy had been installed incorrectly.  I 
only became aware that this was possible -- not to mention entirely 
too likely -- during my recent teardown of the distributor sent to 
me by NE Classics (still apart, all over my bench).  Clearly, I 
hadn't noticed the possibility for confusion the first time I had 
this thing apart.  I will probably go to the effort of creating a 
graphic for the book to make very sure that everyone lucky enough to 
have an intact thingy installs it correctly.

Now that a couple methods of holding the rotor carrier shaft to the 
distributor shaft are discussed in my book, I found it of interest 
how I held my own together before anyone sent any suggestions to me.  
It really was interesting: a washer, an O-ring (too large to snap 
onto the shaft), another washer, and all held on by a small E-clip!  
The two washers and O-ring sandwich sorta filled space.  The E-clip 
was a bit of a PITA to get out, I had to mangle it.  Put it all back 
together with the small chubby O-ring idea.  I still used two 
washers, though; one left too much slop.

One other thing:  Just for grins, I made an attempt to shorten the 
heavy spring on the centrifugal advance.  I must report that it is 
only too easy to do!  I merely positioned the entire length of the 
spring, end loops and all, between the jaws of a pair of pliers and 
gave a little squeeze, and before I knew it the overall length of 
this spring was a mm shorter.  That didn't help my confidence that 
this spring or the other I've measured were original length -- if 
they're easy to shorten, they're easy to stretch -- so now I really 
think we need to find out for SURE what the new, unstretched length 
of this spring is supposed to be.

The best news: Other than the mislocated thingy, it really didn't 
need rebuilding.  I consider this confirmation that the problems with 
seizure are due to some sort of grease these things are assembled 
with rather than a lack of periodic oiling.  I'm sure you all believe 
I lube my distributor regularly, but I probably am no more faithful 
about it than anyone else, and there have been periods where it went 
a long time without the distributor cap coming off.  A wad of cotton 
and synthetic motor oil seem to do the trick just fine.

The distributor was already off the engine, so starting from that 
point it took less than 45 minutes to completely tear it down and 
reassemble -- and I wasn't hurrying.  Also note that, if the entire 
car is assembled and the hood is shut, I could have the distributor 
off in 10 minutes.  Rebuilding this thing is easy.  The hardest part 
is sliding that star wheel off the shaft, but since this distributor 
had been apart before it slid off just fine.

 -- Kirbert      |     If anything is to be accomplished,
                 |     some rules must be broken.
                 |          - Palm's Postulate

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