MattD@Stoptech

Some of you know the problems I experienced at summit, if not here is a brief synopsis.

1st lap of qualifying on saturday, shifting into 4th on the front straight....no power...engine free wheels (still in gear)....change gears...add throttle...nothing....try to restart...nothing...coast to a stop on the grass.

Get towed in, check stuff out: no spark.

Open up the distributor, rotor is imbeded in the cover. Screw backed off and the rotor went flying.

Aparently the rotor was loose for quite some time as the distributor shaft was worn down quite a bit, enough to make the new rotor fit very loosely.

We put new rotor on, but the car still wouldn't start, we investigate further and Kevin Helms notices that the screw lodged itself on the TDC sensor, destroying it.

Off to find a new distributor, we borrow one from the very helpful R&D boys. It's used so we decide to change the rotor, except the old one is REALLY on there. We have the bright idea to use an impact screwdriver to get it off....we get it off, but we also sieze the distributor bearing...junk.

Luckily R&D has yet another distributor they can lend me and we finally manage to put the one on there. The car starts but we have a tough time getting the timing right, we play with it and we get it semi-normal, but it's jumping a bit (more on this later.)

All was this gets finished with nary a minute to spare before Sat's race. I jump in my suit and line up as the last Honda Challenge car in pack (no qualifying time.)
I make my way through the less powerful cars, trying to stay out of their way and race, and trying to pass under power...but the car feels a bit underpowered, even b00kler pulls on me in the lower rpms, and i barely keep up at the higher ones. I don't think much of it though.

Sunday morning rolls around, I start the car up in the morning it idles for 10 seconds and then dies....and wont re-start. No spark again. We change the coil, nothing, we change the ignitor and the car starts up....wee!

I qualify 5th I think, which isn't bad considering everyone in front and some ppl behind are on wide S04 h00siers....and I'm on dinky 205 Ecstas, but I'm not happy with my time, the car just doesn't pull as it used to (more on that later.)

The race starts and by turn 5 the power takes a very rapid downturn...i look at the wideband and it's running pig rich...EVERYONE is pulling on me. For whatever reason I decide to stay out there instead of pulling in and seeing if I can fix a problem. I though it was a stuck injector, or FPR and the car was just running extremely rich, the oil and water temps stayed normal, the car didn't sound any different from the inside. So put-putted around the track till the last lap, when the car's power took another nose drive and just wouldn't go anymore. I pulled off and got towed back in.

The 1st problem turned out to be the #4 spark plug wire coming off the distributor. I started it up again and it run fine till it sputtered and died again.

I didn't have time to look at the car till last weekend. I started off with a compression check...180psi on #4....ruh oh....check #3...180psi as well..hmmm.....why is my intake cam gear at a funny angle?

DOH! it skipped a tooth!

Aparently, went the original distributor rotor went flying off on saturday the rotor screw got wedged on the TDC sensor siezing the intake cam momentarily enough to either stretch or make the toda belt jump a tooth. Luckily I was still running stock pistons.

I re-adjusted the intake cam and checked the compression last nite, 220 all around, so it looks like I didn't bend any valves, but it's a lesson to remember, that's for sure.


CHECK YOUR DISTRIBUTOR ROTOR SCREWS OFTEN!

PS. I had the rotor change on my list of things to do before Summit, but it got pushed off....with disastrous results.

PS2. Autozone sold me the wrong distributor....so I went through 4 distributor tries over that weekend.

speedracer33

Ironic, I lost a distributor during Friday's practice. Luckily Evans had a blingtacular spare that I bought from him. My wires were also screwed, but Phil Ambrose came through bigtime with his used set. The first run with the new distributor ended like yours - a popped off plug wire. Once that was fixed though, that car was perfect for the rest of the weekend. The only thing that kept me from the front of the pack was the driver!

MattD@Stoptech

You say ironic, i say coincidental

Willard

search n00b.

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=370636

MattD@Stoptech

My rotor screw was tightened when i put the rotor on a year ago....but it must have come l00se over time (didn't use locktite)

Honda318dx

Same thing happened to pete's this weekend.. rotor screw backed off..

TeamSlowdotOrg

God, that makes me want to check my distributor. Eep.

mos

Makes me want to install distributorless ignition setup on my car!

TeamSlowdotOrg

That's what I meant to say!

MattD@Stoptech

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mos &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Makes me want to install distributorless ignition setup on my car!</TD></TR></TABLE>

If only that was legal in HC...

mos

I remember seeing a couple URL's where they explain how to replace the distributor bearing... I lost them. Anybody got em? Wondering what the bearing number or part number was.

Edit: Nevermind, Found this one, got the part numbers...

http://www.angelfire.com/ca/Dr....html


Modified by mos at 2:05 PM 8/4/2004