OK... so my car has had a chatter when cold pretty since I bought it - about a year now. The chatter goes away once it has warmed up to full operating temperature. I figured it was probably valve lash - didn't think it had ever been adjusted over the life of the car (130k miles). So I did a valve lash adjustment a couple weeks ago. Most of the valves were within spec. I went ahead and adjusted all valves to minimum factory spec.

I tell ya - the state of this engine internally is unbelievable considering the mileage - for the good. But that is a story for another thread...

...back on topic... after the valve lash adjustment, there was no change in the cold chatter seemingly coming from the valve-train. So I did the old screw driver to the ear trick to listen to where the noise was coming from, Valve-train is tight. Turns out, the noise is coming from the distributor. So I pulled it off.

There is a LOT of play in the distributor shaft. Is this normal? Or is it something to be concerned about? I'm sure it is the original dizzy. I have had it off before to replace the seals. The car runs fine and pulls strong (for an LS) - cold or warm. It only makes the chatter when cold.

Should I be worried? Should I replace the dizzy ASAP? Or is all normal?

 

im no expert but i would replace